The document proposes forming a voluntary society called ONE to work towards building a united, strife-free Earth. It outlines steps for ONE to coordinate with existing organizations, inform governments and citizens, and establish local chapters to alleviate suffering and promote spiritual upliftment through non-sectarian teachings. The goal is for individuals to move beyond ego and work selflessly for human good, ensuring all people's basic needs are met on a sustainable planet.
1. OUR NEW EARTH (ONE)
If you go back in history and analyze the causes of conflicts between nations, between
sections of people of a nation you will observe a common strain - ego. The ego of a
powerful nation to subjugate the weaker nations, the ego of the rich to subjugate the poor
around them, the ego of one religious group to subjugate other religious groups, the ego
of a sect, cast, creed of people to subjugate people of other sects, castes, and creeds.
It is this ego that makes people with different shades of the same religion fight for
superiority; people of different castes or creeds fight to gain control of their immediate
environment.
Yet why this ego, the `I’ factor, the `aham’, when we are but a microcosmic particle in the
cosmic infinity that engulfs us - a speck of dust, with no control on our destiny. We
cannot predict or foretell what course of the macro activity of the cosmic infinity will do
next for us.
The ego is generated from the inherent selfishness of man. This is a part of man’s history.
It cannot be eliminated. We should, therefore, put it to advantageous use in the upliftment
of the human race to a spiritual plane.
Man’s selfishness and the quest for self aggrandizement should be used, to assist him in
excelling in the pursuit of making a name for himself, in the upliftment of the poor, in
improvement of the environment around us, in the cleansing of our minds, in the
upliftment of our thought processes from the material to the spiritual plane. Once he can
reach a spiritual plane his selfishness will make way for benevolence which is also an
inherent but dormant quality in MAN. This will pave the way for making him work for a
better earth. This will transcend him from the practice of `Bhog’ (enjoyment of
consumption) to the practice of `Tyag’ (enjoyment of sacrifice). By excelling in `Tyag’
the more well endowed and emancipated MAN will be able to work for the betterment of
the people and environment around him.
The only thing that man has, is an ever expanding mind, which is in constant quest of its
own origin, of its environment, of trying to understand what it stands on and for, of trying
to find its role in the universe - the cosmic infinity.
Through this unending and continuous quest, man has innovated continuously, to reach
his present state of development which has enabled man to excavate deep underground,
explore deep underwater, and move into space beyond the Earth’s gravitational forces;
and to establish communications with the farthest points they have reached.
However, the effects of this development have touched only a small section of humanity.
The larger section still lives a very primitive life, without the basic amenities of food and
shelter. Millions of people die of hunger and mal-nutrition while millions of tons of
grain are destroyed to keep prices at the desired levels.
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2. Economic compulsions of powerful nations, send them in search of new war zones
between nations, and escalate tensions, so that the ensuing arms race ensures a thriving
arms industry in their own countries. And through this arms race man has created his own
death trap. There is enough arsenals stocked in the nations of the world in defence against
each other, which if accidentally set off, can destroy our mother Earth.
In our quest to succeed and achieve, we have not only created the tools of our own
destruction, but are also continuously exploiting our mother earth in a competitively foul
way, thereby exhausting its resources. We must save our mother earth from this
destruction for our own safety.
While we squabble amongst ourselves, time marches on, as does the continuous evolution
of the Universe - the Cosmic Infinity.
If we are to be counted and play a part in this macro evolution, then we must wake up,
arise above our petty and inconsequential differences, bury all hatchets of our internal
conflicts, and work towards a united Earth, free from the ego based conflicts, free from
the disparities arising from the mal-distribution of wealth and development, and founded
on the human minds potential for goodness.
We must now strive to build a stronger, more uniform, more united Earth, which can take
its rightful place in the comity of the Cosmic Infinity. We must build Our New Earth
through the ONE-ness of the Human penchant for doing good.
With this objective we propose forming the voluntary society ONE (Our New Earth),
which through the following procedures will endeavour to strive for an united and strife
free Earth.
STEPS
1. There are many organizations Government and non-Government throughout the
world who are involved in the upliftment of various sections of society in their
immediate environments. We will establish communications with these societies,
understand their aims and objectives, their difficulties and resource limitations.
Explain to them our objectives, and assist them in helping to build ONE through
there own spheres of activity. ONE will act as the link and coordinator between the
different societies pursuing the same activities and encourage them to draw on each
other’s resources to achieve their respective goals.
2. This step will enable us to marshal all the Good Samaritans of the World who have
already dedicated themselves to the cause of human good, albeit sectarian. It will
help us to harness this energy, and use it to fulfil the objectives set out for ONE.
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3. 3. We must also inform our intentions to Heads of Governments of all the nations of
the World, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and all its affiliated bodies,
the World Bank and all its affiliates.
4. ONE is an Indian initiative like the erstwhile `PANCHSHEEL’ movement, only on a
larger scale involving all nations of the world, and also involving the human rather
than the political cooperation and coexistence. It is only fair, therefore, that the
President and the Prime Minister of the country, and the Chief Ministers of all states,
are taken into confidence, about our aims and objectives.
5. Charity begins at home. If ONE is to be taken seriously, it has to build on a platform
of success in the immediate environment of its origin.
6. The founder members of ONE must, therefore, work towards a strife free and united
country, before they can venture to work for a strife free and united world.
7. It is, therefore, the duty of each founder member of ONE in each country to work
closely with their respective Governments, and influence them to direct their plans
and programs, so that these help to uplift the poorer sections of people, and provide
them with the basic needs of food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, and healthcare
in return for their labour and contributions to society. There should also be a better
distribution of the national wealth amongst the people of the nation.
8. Since ONE is a non-Government society, the only way it can achieve its objectives is
through dialogue with the individual Government think tanks, and influencing the
thought process of the public and the Governments through directed literature and
effective use of the electronic media.
9. ONE will succeed only if we can get key Samaritans in each village, district town,
city, state, enrolled as members, trying to spread the objectives, and putting plans in
action to alleviate the misery around them. Every member of ONE should be in
continuous touch with the core think tank of ONE at its founding head quarters, for
exchange of ideas on their own plans for achieving the objectives of ONE in their
immediate neighbourhood. ONE’s success will be an aggregate of the success of its
individual members, in each village, each district town, each city, and each country.
10. In addition to the economic activity in the material plane which will meet the
physical needs of MAN, ONE will also engage itself in the spiritual upliftment of
MAN, so that through his own self realization he can move from `BHOG’ to
`TYAG’ and become more useful to the people and environment around him.
10.1. In the pursuit of the spiritual activity ONE has no religious dogma. It respects all
religions, and the teachings of all religious leaders of the past and the present. It is
truly secular and believes in Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam Brahma, which translated
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4. means, truth, knowledge, and the limitless eternal power Brahma. Put another way,
it believes in the words of Ramakrishna Paramhangsadev - `Jato Moth tato path’
which translated means simply ` there are as many ways to God as there are
opinions.’
10.2. ONE accepts that all religious teachings have common basics and urge the deciples
to think good, do good, and be good; and also to have complete faith in Satyam,
Jnanam, Anantam Brahma - call it God, Allah, Krishna, Kali, Shiva, or Ram.
10.3. ONE urges all its members to follow these basic principles of their own respective
religions, and have total faith in the Almighty. It urges absolute surrender to the
will of God and dedicate all work to him and for the good of his creation MAN.
10.4. ONE believes in the philosophy of `unity in diversity’ the unifying string being -
think good, do good, be good, in the name of and with complete faith in the
Almighty. This is also the underlying philosophy of all known and practiced
religions around the world.
10.5. To propagate this philosophy and also to help people to move towards the spiritual
plane, ONE will have centres in every neighbourhood which has a large enough
membership, where Yoga, and spiritual developments can be practiced through
discourses on religions. The centres will also be the focal points for distribution of
alms to the poor, shelter to the needy and distressed, and act as the centre of
economic activity.
11. Since there will be many people all over the world working for the same cause, in
their own environments, there will be a need for strong communication links,
through exchange of letters, media coverage, society magazines, seminars,
discourses.
12. All this needs funds. To build a corpus, a small annual fee will be taken from every
active member, to defray the cost of the society’s communications with him / her
during the year. Besides this, donations with tax benefits will be solicited from the
more affluent members and / or Enterprises.
13. All funds will be deposited with the each state HQ of ONE . The state HQ will retain
the amounts required to defray the cost of its approved budgeted revenue expenditure,
and pass on the rest of the funds to the country HQ. They will in-turn retain their own
approved budgeted revenue expenditure, and pass on the remainder to the world HQ
of ONE.
14. Budgets of expenditure at each level will be submitted for approval to the next higher
level. The HQs of each country will assess the budgeted revenue income and expenditure
in their respective countries and make recommendations to the world HQ for
approval. WHQ will review the annual budgets of each country along with the
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5. proposed activity, and use the overall surplus to fund the deficits that may occur in
some countries.
15. The HQ s of districts, state, country will submit reports of their total activity once a
quarter, in comparison to their approved budget and report the variances with reasons.
16. Through all its activities each unit of ONE, at each level, will promote the spirit on
which ONE is founded - an egoless, strife free and united human race, which is
committed to build Our New Earth. We must know that we all belong to this earth and
we must behave in a way that will not destroy our earth.
Actions required for setting up the ONE movement
1. All people who are interested in voluntarily taking lead and supporting roles in
setting up the ONE movement in their respective villages, towns, cities, States,
and countries across the world are requested to write in with their credentials
jointly to pankajmitra@gmail.com; mani_kanchan@yahoo.co.in.
2. On receipt of these interest letters which should be submitted by 31st.December,
2010, these will be scanned and grouped to start the process of setting up the
administrative machinery. These will be fortified as more volunteers write in.
3. As mentioned earlier the organisation in each location will have to be self funding
with fees from members and donations from philanthropists and enterprises.
Administrative expenses will have to be met from the fees and donations
collected.
4. Let us start the ball rolling with the above basic guidelines.
5. The rules, modus operandi, and work plans can be modified by the local
administrators as required, to fulfil the goals and objectives of ONE set out above.
6. I wish God speed to the ONE movement and wish it success in moving towards an
ego free and strife free World, in which the basic needs of all human beings are
met and they have the opportunity for unfettered physical, mental, and spiritual
upliftment.
Prof. Ram Saran Mukherjee
Ex-Head of Political Science Department, Khiderpur College, Kolkata,
Ex-Head Examiner, Political Science, University of Calcutta,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Paramhansa Jnanananda Trust (PJT)
&
Initiator of the concept of ONE
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