Trust is a totally different matter. It has two steps. First is hypothetical trust. Hypothesis is a scientific term. When you start an experiment you hypothetically take it for granted that it will succeed – only hypothetically, there is no guarantee. It is not a belief, you are not risking anything on it. Just to do the experiment you hypothetically accept that perhaps this is the case – let us look into it, go deep into it, experiment with it. It may turn out right, it may not turn out right. The hypothesis does not close the door. The hypothesis is not the answer, it is only the beginning of the search. It is a question mark.
Belief begins with no doubt; hypothesis is full of doubt. A man who has no doubt cannot experiment. For what reason is he going to experiment? It is the doubt – he wants to find the truth. Now, the doubt can be covered by a belief, or it can be removed by the search for the truth. These are the only two ways. If you believe, then there is no need for experiment. So anybody who does not want to risk anything, who has not the intelligence to search – any mediocre – is bound to believe. Only mediocres believe. The greater their stupidity, the bigger is their belief; the greater their mediocrity, the stronger is their fanaticism.
The other way is to start with the doubt, don’t cover it. But to start you need a hypothesis. If I say that water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen – now, either you can believe me or you can take it as a hypothesis. If you take it as a hypothesis you are not believing in me. What I have said, you have accepted only to experiment whether it is true or not.
So the first part of trust is the willingness to experiment.
The master’s function is not to make you believe. His function is to create the atmosphere around himself, the vibe, that attracts a person to experiment, that pulls you toward him, not to believe but to go with him; not to follow but to go with him, “because,” he says, “I have seen something. I have seen a door and through the door I have seen the vast sky.”
The master has to be a certain magnetic force, a tremendous impact. And this comes easily. If I have seen the open sky, something of that open sky will be carried by my eyes. If I have seen the stars, then something of those stars is bound to be reflected in me. I need not claim it.
In fact, those who claim it don’t have it; hence the claim. Jesus calling himself the son of God – what is the need of it? If you are the son of God, will it not be enough for people to feel the vibe of it? When the sun rises there is no need to declare itself. Even the birds start singing – the sun has not knocked on their doors that: “Wake up! It is morning and I have come back.” No, there is no need. Even flowers know that the sun has risen; they start opening. For the night they had closed; now they would like communion with the sun again. It is life! The whole existence understands the sun is there, becomes vibrant with its energy.
What is the need for Jesus to continuously claim that “I am the son of God”? He must be suspicious himself, he must be doubting himself – and it is absolutely intelligible. Nor has he seen God. Nobody has ever seen God. On what grounds can he be without doubt that he is the son of God? The doubt is there. It is to dispel the doubt that he has to claim and shout. He has to convince others in order to be convinced himself that he is the son of God.
A real master claims nothing.