India is a land of many cultures, great diversity, and great opportunity. Yet many of my fellow citizens still struggle to find a way out of poverty. As I’ve prayed about this subject, I’ve focused on three specific conditions that I believe need to be addressed in order to heal this situation: fatalism, lack of purpose, and ignorance.

Although people in India do believe in God, their belief in fatalism is often much stronger. This makes many of them accept poverty as unavoidable—as God’s judgment on sins they may have committed in a previous life. When they accept this mistaken belief as their fate, they lose their motivation to change.

Such a view of life assumes that evil is a power and that we are helpless before it. But views of life can change for the better, as my own life did when I began to study Christian Science. I began to see I didn’t need to accept things as they were—that it was possible to have a better life by thinking of God as infinite Mind, intelligent and good.

Fatalism suggests that there is no escape from what is to come, even if it is something bad. But as Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health, the truth is quite different: “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.”

God is uninterrupted good, all-inclusive, omnipresent. To understand even a little of God’s infinite goodness, and to trust it, opens thought to new possibilities and helps us to see that our lives rest on a “boundless basis.” This understanding can help people pull away from the seemingly unavoidable trap of poverty.

Somewhat connected to fatalism is unemployment, which can suggest that people naturally lack purpose or usefulness. Unemployment is also often related to insufficient education, experience, or opportunity.

But the Bible gives many examples of the talents that God gives to His people. And because God created man—meaning both men and women—in His own image, we each must have an important purpose in His eyes.

As we identify ourselves as children of God, we will discover our spiritual talents and gain the opportunity to use them. I know this from my own experience.

Some years ago I was told that my job would be ending soon, and I didn't have another job to go to. But I had learned from my study of Christian Science that God is the permanent employer of everyone, and that our real work is to express spiritual qualities such as honesty, intelligence, meekness, diligence, and perseverance.

So each day I made a simple prayer, expressing my desire to continue to work for God's praise and glory. Within three months, I was offered a job with abundant salary and benefits, exactly suited to my experience. The job began as my previous job ended, so I wasn't even unemployed for a day.

But even when people have jobs, poverty can still be an issue. The need to appear important at weddings, festivals, and during other traditions encourages people to borrow at high interest rates and become slaves to lenders. Much of this stems from people's ignorance of other, better ways to value their lives.

This is where spiritual education and understanding can help. Several years ago, I taught in my church’s Christian Science Sunday School in Hindi—my country’s national language. A number of domestic workers attended, and I soon began to have informal meetings in my home after church.

Through these gatherings, people were able to discuss how God was caring for them already, and to share what they were learning with each other. They began to understand that God was caring for them in everything they did.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” The people in my meetings came to understand that their needs were met by inspired ideas—not by money alone.

And now they trust God more, which gives them confidence in decision-making, goal selection, and relationships. They don’t need to rely on spending beyond their means to give their lives value and meaning.

Each of us is spiritual, made in God’s likeness. We already include all the ideas we need in order to carry out God’s purpose for us, which is always good. This purpose never condemns us to poverty.

God’s will is always rooted in Love for us. It is, in fact, the love that a father or mother has for the children. But there is no rivalry in God’s household—God does not need to take from one to give to another, because He is infinite.

I take great strength from Christ Jesus’ statement, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The spiritual foundation for this life can be found in Jesus’ teachings and in Science and Health, which elucidates Jesus’ example. The abundant life Jesus promised is available to each of us, and it is worth praying for.

Claiming our unity with God—and everyone’s freedom from fatalism, lack of purpose, and ignorance—will open the way to new opportunities. And as our prayers encompass the whole world, everyone’s life will be benefited.

Life on a boundless basis:

Science and Health
258:13-15 
494:10-11

King James Bible
John 10:10