Below The Poverty Line (E-book)

People with limited means, resort to relate with everyday use objects. They pump their inner faith and belief into these objects. These objects become a medium of emotional fulfillment in lieu of the actual thing, which the believer wants but does not have.

Thus, it is the faith of the people which elevates the worthiness of the objects. One day the object becomes priceless. This foliage, that power of faith, drives the beholder to convince themselves to believe that the object they possess is far beyond what any wealthy being can ever possess or in their words, “What the rich have is nothing as compared to this object which I possess.” That is the ironical truth behind the existence of those with meagre resources and means.

This stream of thought is perhaps responsible for the origination of the phrase ‘filthy rich’ because the poor often perceive excess of wealth as filthy, to shield themselves and establish retention of the standard of living they relate with; embracing the lifestyle with the warmth of their hearts. The warmth which an onlooker can see is actually a layer of mere sympathy and self pity. This illusionary wall that mirrors a poor mans’ own state of existence, weighs them down and is perhaps their biggest limitation.

However, there comes a time, of disentanglement. The transformation is excruciatingly painful when one lets go of their helplessness. At the same time its very liberating and rewarding. If the poor channel their accumulated power of faith in another direction, towards EARNING that which they’re deprived of instead of habitually continuing to meditate on the object alone –  that power can uplift them.

In the path of upliftment, many old and close friends alienate, as new ones approach you. This is how a person knows, and keep a check on whether,  they’re rising up.

The day a poor man bursts their bubble of bliss by remembering that an object they worship was created to fend them to survive times of limited means, and the object is not something that they cannot do without; from that moment on, I believe, poverty will gradually pace on a declining trend and eventually cease to exist.