The entire life in the universe is based on trust. Trust is based on certainty and predictability. Philosophers speak about physical, metaphysical, and moral certainties. Physical certainty relates to natural phenomena such as sun's rising and setting, and is very highly predictable from the past experience so far. Metaphysical or absolute certainty relates only to events that have taken place. Nobody in the right mind can deny them. For instance, that a tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011 causing incalculable damage falls in the realm of metaphysical certainty. In moral certainty we have clear expectations. We are concerned in this article about trust based on moral certainty on which our day-to-day life is based. Trust is the foundation of all transactions and relationships. For instance, we trust that drivers in India drive their vehicles on the left side of the road, and drivers in the USA drive on the right; when we go to a restaurant to eat we trust that the food there is not poisoned; we trust that the ceiling of the room we are sitting in will not fall on us. Yet humanity has been proven wrong very rarely in the above instances. Yet we go on trusting. Moral certainty operates in the area where human freedom is at work. Predictability can be affected in that human freedom can be abused in rare instances. An innocent worker, for instance, never thought that he would be shot and killed by his co-worker at the work site. But this has happened. We do not have complete certainty and predictability. That is precisely the reason why we trust. For complete trust to take place a certain knowledge that guarantees total security from error is needed. So is a mental state without doubt. When there is full certainty and predictability trust is superfluous.

             We trust or we perish. The Soviet dictator, Stalin, stated: "I trust no one, not even myself". What was the result? Distrust, paranoia, brutality, and chaos. He eliminated everyone who came in the way of his power, or everyone whom he thought was against him. He murdered millions. Serfdom, slavery, caste and race systems, gender discriminations, and religious intolerance, and the gross mistreatment and injustice that resulted in their wake laid a strong foundation for a paranoid and inhuman culture. In medieval times it was not unusual for kings and popes to have their cooks taste the food prepared for them before they consumed it as they did not want to be killed by food poisoned by their inner circle. Emperor Aurangzeb did not trust his father, Shah Jahan, and his brothers, and one of his sons. He imprisoned his father and killed his brothers and the distrusted son. Western imperialism and colonialism left deep wounds on human trust. Some of the countless dictators around the world like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and Augustine Pinochet exemplify the worst aspects of our human nature and distrust in the modern era. They belonged to conservative, progressive, or revolutionary persuasions. They led humanity on a cruel, destructive, and paranoid path that have left deep scars on humanity. Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosovich were brought to justice for ethnic cleansing. Augustine Pinochet was tried. The world court at Hague has begun sending a clear message to abusive dictators and criminal leaders of nations.

             The endless wars, the two world wars, and on-going armed conflicts, and ethnic cleansings demoralized humanity, and drained from humanity an enormous fund of trust. Humanity inherited a very bleak future related to trust. Could we have handled 9/11 (September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center, the twin towers, tallest in New York, were blown up using hi-jacked airplanes as missiles) differently? The response to Al Qaida launching attacks on innocent humanity and the change of government in cruel, fanatic, Taliban-led Afghanistan was mostly right. But all-too hasty moving into Iraq to remove dictator Saddam Hussain, bad and ruthless as he was, without an international mandate has only mired the USA and its handful of minimal allies into a Vietnam-like war. After 9/11 air travel everywhere has become a veritable nightmare. In 1982 I remember landing in New York by Air India much later than the scheduled arrival time; after a quick customs clearance I rushed to the domestic terminal, and got into a plane bound for St. Louis without a boarding pass just a couple of minutes before the entry doors were secured for the flight. I did not disappoint my many friends waiting at the arrival gate inside the terminal building in St. Louis. Those days are gone forever. Trust, discretion, and often a good chunk of human dignity have been thrown out of the window with our preoccupation with innumerable checks and re-checks, safety and security.

             After that fatal day in September when 20 extremely misguided anti-social persons through their brutal and suicidal mission causing untold suffering, incalculable damage and loss, the world has become a more unsafe and hostile place to live in. In a way have they not won in their perverse mission the outcome of which still subjects humanity to undue anxiety, fear, and misery?! In this era of terrorism where terrorists engage daily in the ultimate sacrifice of blowing themselves up while taking down thousands of innocent victims with them, we seem to be immersed and trapped in a morass of distrust. Why speak about terrorists? Coming home to my own Ashram surroundings in India, I come across almost on a daily basis a very cynical and hopeless comment: Innu aareyum viswasikkan paadilla ("In these days you really can't trust anybody"). This comment interestingly comes from good-intentioned friends and acquaintances who are in the clutches of a pervasive culture of corruption to which they themselves helplessly contribute. This dangerous comment of general distrust indicative of learned helplessness does more harm, in my mind, than all the terrorists put together. It was the helpless silence and impotence of many that paved the way for Hitless to murder about 6 million Jews. How are we going to re-build trust brick by brick from the ruins of trust and the barren waste land of distrust? We certainly can rant and rave about the sheer irrationality and brutality of the methods the terrorists use for their cause. We can continue to react to them and fight in the terrain they choose. Or we can choose to respond from a moral high ground that restores hope and trust to all including the terrorists and the cynics.

             The terrorists through their desperate behavior are communicating a certain message. The message may contain certain "clashes of civilizations". It may contain their despair and frustration related to their legitimate rights and aspirations. It may contain healthy as well as toxic elements. We need to take time to decode and decipher their message and carefully sort out the various elements with empathy and compassion. After that we need to do a thorough examination of conscience with regard to the wholesome, value-based world that we need to order and secure for ourselves. That world has to be spirit-led and not dominated by money, might, power, and glamour the whole world is engrossed with. A faith in religions that is not related to justice ought to have no place in the world. A God who is, above all else, is infinite love and compassion, and is essentially indefinable cannot be molded to suit human needs and wants. God is not punitive; we punish ourselves choosing freely the evil we know. God can be considered to be punitive only if we fault God for the freedom that God gave us, the freedom that includes even choosing evil. Without that freedom we will not be humans ourselves. We need to figure out why we, intelligent as we are, so blatantly abuse our freedom. We need to put our house in order before we can ask others including terrorists to fall in line. There is no doubt that terrorists need to be made accountable for their behavior. Terrorism in its various forms capturing the essence of evil destroys trust all together.

             The terrorists at least in our reckoning should not have a reason to be terrorists. Injustices in whatever form and wherever they are need to be eliminated. Human nature due to misuse of freedom will always have terrorists and criminals. But they should not use our individual or collective injustice as an excuse for criminal behavior. The Palestinian issue is a thorn on the side of humanity ever since it came to a head in 1948. Human energy and good will need to be summoned to generate a will to solve this issue with fairness, equity, and justice. The Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan always festering, and keeping the entire Indian subcontinent in relentless tension and turmoil swallowing up vital resources for development also need to be resolved in a spirit of trust, compromise, and camaraderie. That Pakistan for all intents and purposes is a theocratic state claiming to be a democracy makes the Kashmir issue all the more complicated. Yet the fact that the people of India and Pakistan once lived in one greater India and shared the same destiny as brothers and sisters should help find sufficient common ground to resolve all unresolved issues constructively, amicably, and compassionately. With every day of delay the crisis gets worse. We certainly need visionary leaders who dare to dream dreams for humanity to mobilize the will to bring these issues that drain our vital energy to an end. Currently trust is at a very low ebb in the world. Distrust, cynicism, and skepticism seem to be having an upper hand. Trust can grow only in peace time. With so many tensions and conflicts all over the world we need to prepare humanity for peace in order to create the right climate for building trust. This really is the primary job of every person of good will. As war begins in the mind so also peace, so also trust. A will to trust even when trusting is the last thing that one wants to do and even when one has to summon all one's energy at one's disposal to trust is of paramount importance if we do not want to blow ourselves up into smithereens.