One out of three In a poor country is living below the poverty line. And their number is steadily increasing. International agencies, donor nations, the UNO and the NGOs operating in each country, have been extending, from time to time, free medicines, clothes and financial helps to the poor and the downtrodden, to the backward and the sick. There have been efforts too, to educate them, to reduce population explosion, empower women and to provide employment opportunities. But with all these, there are more poor people today than ever before. Obviously, the efforts have not produced the desired results. They remain still mostly illiterate, engaged in petty thefts, prostitution or doing menial and odd jobs. There has absolutely been no improvement in their living standards and as mentioned already, their numbers have been steadily increasing. But, why? The external, material helps do alleviate their hunger a little or remove the disease symptoms or still, help them clothe themselves for the time being. But it does not alter the reality. As soon as the helps stop coming, they return to their previous states. Why the efforts at such a massive scale go unproductive? Why there is no improvement in their living standards? →Has It got anything to do with their thoughts, beliefs and attitudes? →Can external help alter the life of anybody? Well, if external help could change individuals and societies it would have already become a reality. Aid is coming in such a massive scale. The donor countries, international organizations and the respective governments have all been doing the same for a long time now with no or little result whatsoever. A close analysis of the poor in each one of the countries concerned reveals that their belief system remains the same. Their thought patterns do not alter at all. Their attitude is the same as say centuries before. And no effort is done to alter their thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. →MOST OF THEM BELIEVE IN FATE OR KARMA OR NO-SOLUTION-INEVITABILITY. They feel they are destined to suffer and that without external help they are doomed. There is also a prevailing notion that it is the duty of the society and the government to uplift them. Have their backwardness and poverty anything to do with their thought patterns? Yes, it is possible.Just what are their thought-patterns? They think almost always about poverty, wants and sickness. They fear about what they will eat and what they will put on tomorrow. Where they will sleep. How they will get treatment for their frequent illnesses. Could it be that their thoughts, fears and emotions create their reality? There seems to be a strong co-relation between the two. A hunger project study conducted by Wisner Erhard in 1977 has shown that scarcity orientation and victim mentality are at the root of the world hunger. Their thought patterns have been programmed into them through the poverty at home and in their neighborhood. The no-solution-inevitability is built into their brain from the very beginning. As a consequence, they accept their fate passively. In fact they expect nothing else but poverty and suffering. There is no wonder that they do not try to overcome their pathetic state of affairs. The occasional helps they receive merely help to overcome the crippling situation or prolong their existence for the time being. And as their belief system does not change there will be no effort whatsoever from their part to improve their lot. Scarcity of food has haunted human societies too. Diseases, epidemics and natural calamities have killed millions of them. A majority of the children born so far in the world, have died before reaching the age of 12. Horrendous plagues have obliterated entire human societies. Of late, new plaques have surfaced and they threaten man’s very existence here.Man’s helplessness must have slowly led him to the belief in Karma or fate. They feel they are helpless victims destined for poverty, diseases and suffering. Naturally they tend to surrender themselves to whatever nature brings. But man has the power to alter his fate. The core belief system determines the mental attitude. Efforts to come up emanate from one’s attitudes. As these people believe in destiny or pre-determination, they never ever think or try to overcome their lot. Today man is no more at the mercy of nature or its forces. Medical science has advanced so much that infant mortality rate has drastically come down. Industrial revolution has ensured adequate production of goods and services. Agriculture has developed so much that today we are able to produce more food than is required. →Now man has become the master of his life. He has to only challenge the adversities. For this, he has to first believe that he can overcome them if he tries. If he believes he cannot, he will never ever try at all to alter his situation. Even in the past, those who have challenged their fate and fought against adversities have all come up. Those who dreamt high did progress and succeed. This is amply demonstrated by the millions of individuals who succeeded in their lives by their own efforts and a number of societies which advanced against all odds.