FAQs

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POEM (PEACE ON EARTH MISSION) International is a nonprofit charitable organization incorporated to promote the cause of Peace and conduct charitable work. 

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POEM’s vision is  a society that collectively recognize PEACE as a NEED to be fulfilled, a GOAL  to be achieved and strive for achieving and sustaining PEACE.

 

Mission  of POEM is to motivate, individuals, families, groups and communities  and nations to  accept Peace On Earth as one of their important Missions  to work for.

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POEM people are those who practice peace in their day to day life. It is an alliance of mission driven people from all walks of life,  races, color, ethnicities , and religions.

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Some of the basic beliefs of POEM people are:

  1. Believe  in Truth; Truth as revealed through objective and free thoughts  that are not selfish and not  aimed at self promotion.
  2. Every human being is created equal and fundamental nature of  man is GOOD. The urge to do Good and to search for Truth is inbuilt in the genes of every  person at birth.
  3. The motivation for every human act is to fulfill a human need. By observing and analyzing those needs one can categorize them to body needs, mind needs and soul needs.
  4. Fulfillment of a human need bring a sense of satisfaction. The after effect of satisfaction is peace. But the  peace obtained by satisfying material needs prompted by body’s and mind’s desires are temporary and short lived. Moreover, unless controlled, material need satisfaction process increases  the craving for fulfillment of more and more of those needs and make a person greedy. Greed is a root cause of conflict.
  5. By taking control of human needs, especially the desires of body and mind, through a personal growth process and establishing a right equilibrium of the human need forces, a person can reach a state of SELF actualization, where fulfillment of  the needs of the soul  attains priority.
  6. Acts to fulfill the needs of the soul  results in loving kindness and sacrificial love towards fellow beings. Satisfaction of the needs of the soul bring PEACE that is sustainable . Individual needs, then, synchronize with society’s needs creating harmony.
  7. When an optimum number of people in any society grows to a level of SELF actualization PEACE spreads and a condition for peaceful coexistence and joy prevails . True Peace is  contagious.
  8. All religions, philosophies, theologies and  science (psychology) ,explicitly or implicitly aim at peace. All such works are the result of unending  search for truth. Many theological teachings  advocate controlling or denying ‘lower’ needs to reach the higher needs. Motivation theories (Maslow) advance progressive fulfillment of human needs to  increase productivity and profit. All theories and teachings are in agreement about the step by step advancement  to self actualization; which is understood by different terms and names in various religions and science. So there should be no need for conflict between religion and science or between one religion and another or one theology and other. The most important thing is to realize that everyone is in need of sustainable peace. The longing and searching  for peace, is done by all, many a time without recognizing it.
  9. Ignorance due to lack of SELF awareness that peace is the underlying need  blocks vision of the ’empathy gene’ embedded  in SELF, and causes misunderstanding of others as enemies
  10. POEM’s role is to work as a catalyst in motivating people to, in fading out suspicion, rivalries and conflicts and I helping to recognize PEACE as a human need of the higher order. Then jointly try to define fundamental requirements to achieve , and a  explore navigable paths to sustainable peace.  Then help people undergo a growth process to reach a stage of self actualization , taste the joy of peace and take up the Mission to promote  and spread peace.

 

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POEM is not a religion. All religions’ aim is peace. POEM believes that religious belief and faith is a personal choice and there should be absolute freedom to chose one’s faith. Participation in POEM can be done by people of every faith and at individual level in every day thoughts and deeds

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Those atheist who truly believe that God is not for rational thinkers and religions are entities to exploit human weakness and fears deserves to be treated with respect. Atheists of this kind are created by those abuser leaders of religions who use their positions for self gain. The divine spirit is in every individual, whether created by God or evolved through a material, evolution process. That spirit in the mind of the atheist is revolting against religions, corrupted due to some abusing leaders. That revolt is the result of the ’empathy gene’ which confuses the fake religious leaders as carriers of divinity . This misunderstanding leads to denial of God. They are fundamentally good people. They can be big contributors to peace.

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Peace is not just avoidance of conflict. Peace is a state of mind for the individual, for the collective ‘mind’ of a family, group ,community etc. Peace is a state of “mind”; a collective conscience to be realized  by the society . Start and derive peace from fundamentals, of human mind; utilize all tools and knowledge gained in this  area by  all religions, educators, gurus, and science  with open mind;

As The Bible teaches, true Peace is not  that the world  gives but that comes from heaven. POEM read this “world given peace” as that comes out of satisfaction of material needs. The heavenly peace is the peace that comes out of satisfaction of the needs   ‘self actualized ‘ soul. That is the state of satisfaction of the needs of body, mind and soul combined. This balanced satisfaction of emancipated SELF comes as a result of

  1. Free and objective thinking
  2. Research to understand and define peace
  3. Exploration of a navigable path to peace
  4. Focusing  on personal growth and self  development
  5. Believing in fundamental goodness of human nature.
  6. Considering every other person as brother/sister in spirit
  7. Considering no one as enemy; a mind devoid of hatred
  8. Working for need satisfaction of fellow beings; society’s higher happiness  index.
  9. Team work and perseverance.
  10. Humility and comradeship
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True. All religions and theologies  advance the method of inner peace for centuries. But peace is not coming through . This may be because many of such teachings  emphasis on blind faith on a ‘formula’ or ‘method’ ,to be followed,  as a final product. A ‘mine  is better than yours” attitude and a tendency to denounce and condemn  other views are retarding the march towards peace.

Further, a world view that religion and science are opposing each other is shadowing and darkening the path to peace.

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POEM consider all teachings, researches, findings and advancements by religions, peace organizations, and scientific community, important. They are all results of human curiosity, and efforts to explore the unknown, and the never ending quest for a just and peaceful world.

Even those who advocate eternal life, salvation, moksha,  nirvana  etc should have no conflict about the need to peace in this present world. None is against peace of mind for the individual and families. Those who do not believe in eternal life ,too, are longing for peace in life. PEACE On Earth ,thus, should be a common goal for everyone. Just the realization of this fact will motivate all to strive for peace together, create an alliance  and work for peace  as a team. This is where POEM becomes relevant. The function of POEM is to kindle the  fire of ‘Peace energy’ by pointing out to the Divine  spark  of righteousness . It is like the role of a small candle used to light up a huge torch of light.

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Start working as a missionary of POEM in your own  day to day life. First, try to regain your freedom to think objectively and analytically. Once you do that, you  have already started  and are on a firm footing. If you believe in God  take your personal God as your guide, it may be Jesus for a Christian, Allah/prophet (PBUH) for a Muslim or Krishna for an Arjun (Hindu). It could be a role model  like Gandhi for some, or simply a cosmic, universal conscience for others or simple common sense for those who have no faith in any super powers or models. Search for your guide’s words and teachings pertaining to peace and learn ways to practice them in life.

The first phase of your march towards peace is to  shed hatred. At completion of this phase, you reach a milestone where you can  do a self analysis and say to yourselves that there are no one whom you hate.  You learn about intellectual empathy and are able to understand others from their perspective. You may not agree with them or even, you  may oppose them.  But you do not hate them, Everyone is loved but his/her activities are liked or disliked based on merit. 

At this milestone you will realize that you have elevated yourself to a higher level. Your greed is tapered off and desires for material needs are in control. You start feeling the pain and happiness of the society as your own.  Your SELF spreads in concentric circles to your family, and community. Your growth as a responsible member of the community has reached a high level. 

You feel part of, and grow with the society  NOT at the cost of it.

You are ready to take up the mission to spread peace. 

You can work with POEM family in this phase get help and render help to others.

You could volunteer to work  with POEM to spread the message of peace. 

You can share your professional talents with POEM family 

Send your details by  filling the form here (give link)

Your  most important participation with POEM is to effect change in your own life  to become a messenger of peace to yourself first,  and then your family, faith community  and the society at large. 

As Gandhi said, become  the change  you want to be, and your own life will become your message.

The difficulty in achieving peace is the popular expectation that peace will be showered from above, by God, a super power or a charismatic super human leader. The reality is that anything good including peace will grow only if  rooted  in ground; among common people and allowed to grow upward. Simple acts of simple people, if guided by the principles of peace  are the basic source for a peaceful world. Like the big ocean is made of  countless drops of water, peaceful society will emerge out of  small daily  acts of ordinary people . When, we common people, understand peace in simple terms and gauge  and adjust our daily actions against requirements of peace, peace will take roots. It will then grow like the mustard seed mentioned in The Bible.

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POEM Is supported by voluntary  tax deductible contributions from  people who subscribe to the views of POEM. Also, people, qualified in various professions are coming forward to donate their time as volunteers working on line and working in their communities. Those who want to donate money can send money to POEM’s account 

With  chase bank

routing number 111000614.

account number 899078005.

Those who donate money and want to get an official receipt and/or copy of annual financial statement may request it at poeminternational@gmail.com