Book Of Eli

[AK-47]

WARNING - If you intend to go watch this film, the following will totally ruin the plot for you so please dont read it (not the best start to a post but there u go!)

If you are still reading then its your own fault!

Ok somebody recommended this film to me so I went to watch it and was very impressed. The story line is as follows (last chance to turn back!):

There was a war (nucleur war?) which took place and resulted in a huge hole opening up in the ozone layer, which caused the sun and its rays to destroy and burn up much of the earth. The majority of the people and most of the earths resources were destroyed. What is left is a broken society with people scrapping and fightin over the most basic of needs, one of the most valuable being water. The world is run by localised criminals who dominate over people using force and by manipulating what resources are left. Guns and weapons are few and rare, fuel, electricity and other such things are also rare. In general its a pretty bad state of affairs ... and also very similar to the kind of things which Gursikhs tell us are due to happen.

Into all of this mess steps a man called Eli who carries a book (the bible). Eli is a tough guy who reads his bible daily and has a mission from God. We learn from Eli that after the war, many people blamed the bible (and other religious texts) as being the cause of the war. And therefore there was a massive concerted effort to burn every single copy of the bible (and other texts). A voice however led him to what is the last bible on earth and told him to travel to the west until he finds where it needs to be.

Along the way a local crime lord is looking for a copy of the bible. Because he knows that in a world of desperation, of no hope, no happiness, no god, the WORD OF GOD would bring people to him, would give people a chance, would ultimately give him power. Those looking for God would flock to him, looking for the only remaining word of god on the planet. Then theres fights trying to recover the bible, and denzel kicks the heck out of the baddies (great fight scenes!). Eventually the baddy gets the bible, but cant read it beacuse its in braille, and we find out that Eli was actually blind and had been guided across the country and protected throughout by god. Eli on loosing the bible, comments that 'by protecting the bible for so long he almost forgot to practice what it taught him'. He leaves the bible with the bad guys and carries on west. Here he meets some survivors and from memory reads out the bible which he has stored in his mind, word for word, page for page. He dies in the end after this task which was given to him by god. The bad guy who now has the physical bible still cant read it cus its in braille.

Overall great film, now for why I am mentioning this on a sikh forum.

Couple of points as follows:

1) End of the world/society as we know it. This is bound to happen at one point as even previous societies and world orders have ended. In the nucleur age and with countries like Iran going solo, it is likely that at some point some nut job may just press the button and its game over. If not via nucleur threat, then it may be via economic and resource wars, wars over fuel, food, repaying of debt, terrorism etc. It may be natural, due to environmental issues. Given current world politics, one would be thinking that man made disaster/war is most likely. The film suggests that people may view religion as cause behind this. Today there are many many people who hold same view. If Iran lets off a bomb, then many will view this as Islam vs Christian/Jewish war. Internationally there is a movement growing against religion case in point being France. In the Economist there was an article which reported that "Freedom" was lower now then it had been 10 years ago. This is a measure of various freedoms across the world - not a good sign, we seem to be going backwards! If war goes off, religion will be made culprit, could this lead to destruction of religious items, texts, buildings etc?

2) Gursikhs have spoken about how Sikhs (and i guess other relgious groups) will have to go into hiding again as a result of persecution. Others have spoken about Gurbani dissapearing. Perhaps this is through the deliberate destruction?

3) The most important point .... Eli kept the bible alive by reading it daily and thus memorising the entire bible, and then living (as best he could) by what it taught him. Can we Sikhs, who lay so much importance in the reading of Gurbani say that we do this? In the face of presecution of religion, it is not just the soldier that must survive, it is knowledge of gurbani. We have never wavered when massacred or put our heads down after genocide, we have survived and stood strong. When we seem to waver is when we forget gurbani or when gurbani is challenged and taken away from us. To survive the coming times, it is vital to learn, read, singh and memorise Gurbani.

Some rehat namas even say that a Sikh must have japji sahib memorised. Do we all know japji sahib? I can tell you that I have met a number of non amritdharis girls and boys who despite living typical punjabi lives, still do japji sahib daily and know it off by heart (cant even read gurmukhi, but have learnt it from transliteration). We should feel some sharam and at same time inspiration.

So without going on even more ... please please let us all learn and memorise gurbani. Its a weird thing, but thats what hollywood and denzel washington reminded me today!

[Azaad]

"The most important point .... Eli kept the bible alive by reading it daily and thus memorising the entire bible, and then living (as best he could) by what it taught him. Can we Sikhs, who lay so much importance in the reading of Gurbani say that we do this? In the face of presecution of religion, it is not just the soldier that must survive, it is knowledge of gurbani. We have never wavered when massacred or put our heads down after genocide, we have survived and stood strong. When we seem to waver is when we forget gurbani or when gurbani is challenged and taken away from us. To survive the coming times, it is vital to learn, read, singh and memorise Gurbani. "

wow....

[Deletedkp]

WARNING - If you intend to go watch this film, the following will totally ruin the plot for you so please dont read it (not the best start to a post but there u go!)

If you are still reading then its your own fault!

Ok somebody recommended this film to me so I went to watch it and was very impressed. The story line is as follows (last chance to turn back!):

There was a war (nucleur war?) which took place and resulted in a huge hole opening up in the ozone layer, which caused the sun and its rays to destroy and burn up much of the earth. The majority of the people and most of the earths resources were destroyed. What is left is a broken society with people scrapping and fightin over the most basic of needs, one of the most valuable being water. The world is run by localised criminals who dominate over people using force and by manipulating what resources are left. Guns and weapons are few and rare, fuel, electricity and other such things are also rare. In general its a pretty bad state of affairs ... and also very similar to the kind of things which Gursikhs tell us are due to happen.

Into all of this mess steps a man called Eli who carries a book (the bible). Eli is a tough guy who reads his bible daily and has a mission from God. We learn from Eli that after the war, many people blamed the bible (and other religious texts) as being the cause of the war. And therefore there was a massive concerted effort to burn every single copy of the bible (and other texts). A voice however led him to what is the last bible on earth and told him to travel to the west until he finds where it needs to be.

Along the way a local crime lord is looking for a copy of the bible. Because he knows that in a world of desperation, of no hope, no happiness, no god, the WORD OF GOD would bring people to him, would give people a chance, would ultimately give him power. Those looking for God would flock to him, looking for the only remaining word of god on the planet. Then theres fights trying to recover the bible, and denzel kicks the heck out of the baddies (great fight scenes!). Eventually the baddy gets the bible, but cant read it beacuse its in braille, and we find out that Eli was actually blind and had been guided across the country and protected throughout by god. Eli on loosing the bible, comments that 'by protecting the bible for so long he almost forgot to practice what it taught him'. He leaves the bible with the bad guys and carries on west. Here he meets some survivors and from memory reads out the bible which he has stored in his mind, word for word, page for page. He dies in the end after this task which was given to him by god. The bad guy who now has the physical bible still cant read it cus its in braille.

Overall great film, now for why I am mentioning this on a sikh forum.

Couple of points as follows:

1) End of the world/society as we know it. This is bound to happen at one point as even previous societies and world orders have ended. In the nucleur age and with countries like Iran going solo, it is likely that at some point some nut job may just press the button and its game over. If not via nucleur threat, then it may be via economic and resource wars, wars over fuel, food, repaying of debt, terrorism etc. It may be natural, due to environmental issues. Given current world politics, one would be thinking that man made disaster/war is most likely. The film suggests that people may view religion as cause behind this. Today there are many many people who hold same view. If Iran lets off a bomb, then many will view this as Islam vs Christian/Jewish war. Internationally there is a movement growing against religion case in point being France. In the Economist there was an article which reported that "Freedom" was lower now then it had been 10 years ago. This is a measure of various freedoms across the world - not a good sign, we seem to be going backwards! If war goes off, religion will be made culprit, could this lead to destruction of religious items, texts, buildings etc?

2) Gursikhs have spoken about how Sikhs (and i guess other relgious groups) will have to go into hiding again as a result of persecution. Others have spoken about Gurbani dissapearing. Perhaps this is through the deliberate destruction?

3) The most important point .... Eli kept the bible alive by reading it daily and thus memorising the entire bible, and then living (as best he could) by what it taught him. Can we Sikhs, who lay so much importance in the reading of Gurbani say that we do this? In the face of presecution of religion, it is not just the soldier that must survive, it is knowledge of gurbani. We have never wavered when massacred or put our heads down after genocide, we have survived and stood strong. When we seem to waver is when we forget gurbani or when gurbani is challenged and taken away from us. To survive the coming times, it is vital to learn, read, singh and memorise Gurbani.

Some rehat namas even say that a Sikh must have japji sahib memorised. Do we all know japji sahib? I can tell you that I have met a number of non amritdharis girls and boys who despite living typical punjabi lives, still do japji sahib daily and know it off by heart (cant even read gurmukhi, but have learnt it from transliteration). We should feel some sharam and at same time inspiration.

So without going on even more ... please please let us all learn and memorise gurbani. Its a weird thing, but thats what hollywood and denzel washington reminded me today!

I agree with mojority of the issues you have mentioned here. But the true question is by you memorising the japji sahib, what are you to gain from it if you are not going to adopt the meaning into your life.

Personally, I believe, religion is created to control the masses. Even in Islam, you speak to some of extremely rich Arabs. They do not even follow Islam.

All wars are created by one reason "religion". Even the Sikh religion is going the same way, control the masses and hopefully we will get our own way.

[AK-47]

I agree with mojority of the issues you have mentioned here. But the true question is by you memorising the japji sahib, what are you to gain from it if you are not going to adopt the meaning into your life.

Personally, I believe, religion is created to control the masses. Even in Islam, you speak to some of extremely rich Arabs. They do not even follow Islam.

All wars are created by one reason "religion". Even the Sikh religion is going the same way, control the masses and hopefully we will get our own way.

The learning of japji sahib should of course be combined with the practice of the teachings of japji sahib. However, the act of learning it and reading it again and again in devotion, is exactly that, devotion. If we compare it when we revise for exams, or for speeches and presentations, we are forced to engage with the material and really dig deep into to memorise it. Its easier to memorise something u understand. For gurbani it will always be easier to memorise it if we know what it means.

Quite a few people claim that religion is/was to control people, and to an extent you may be right that this is what it has turned into. Rather then be a way of meeting vaheguru and living the life of a khalsa, we have become something else. Every day our true faith is being twisted and turned, we are questioning the very basis of our faith ... and as ever is the majority influenced by whoever it may be, that seem to have the final say. It seems to have become more about who can shout the loudest rather then what the person has to say.

I wouldnt say all wars were based on religion, more maybe that religion is used as an excuse to justify war and bloodshed. But for the common non particularly relgious person, looking at it, they will agree with u and say that religion = war.

I guess taking it back to the point about learning gurbani is, that if you spend hours reading it, understanding it, learning it, doing sangat of it, then with maharajhs kirpa it will have an effect on you. It needs to be done! For years and years I could quote loads of sant jarnail singh jis speeches, but ask me to say the first 5 pauris of the japji sahib and i would have been embarassed and made some excuse. Its sad but many of us in that same place, we just dont seem to value gurbani and want to learn it. But somehow we will 'save' the faith.

ok then ..