If 'Silence' was about Sikhi what would you do?

[Guest FilmWatcher]

I've just watched a film called 'Silence' directed by Martin Scorsese. It's set in sixteenth century Japan when Christianity was outlawed and people were killed if they were found to have converted. 

There is a scene in the film where several Japanese converts have denied their faith but are still being horrifically tortured. The Portuguese priest can stop the torture ( and their likely death) if he denounces Jesus Christ. If he gives up his faith he cannot return to it as the Japanese will force him to sign statements and desecrate icons each year to prove he is no longer Christian. If he wants to keep his faith he is forced to watch and hear his congregation suffer until they die in agony. 

What should a Sikh do in this context ? Should he / she give up their faith to save the lives of others ? What would the Gurus have done ? 

 

Here's the Wikipedia link to the film. It's worth watching. HTTP://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_(2016_film)

[GurjantGnostic]

16 hours ago, Guest FilmWatcher said:

What should a Sikh do in this context ? Should he / she give up their faith to save the lives of others ? What would the Gurus have done ?

I think the Gurus and many Shaheed covered that. 

[Guest Freedom of Choice]

On 5/24/2018 at 7:53 AM, GurjantGnostic said:

I think the Gurus and many Shaheed covered that. 

We're all free to live as we Choose. 

 

You can choose to dishonour your beliefs  and convert to a religion you dont agree with under pressure. 

Or you can stay True to yourself, and stand by what you believe in through thick and thin, no matter the consequences. 

 

 

[Not2Cool2Argue]

This is a really hard dilemma. A case of serious dharam sakant as they say in mahabharat. Where two morally good priniciples are opposed. On one hand, u want to stay true to the religion on the other hand u want to save people. 

There are 4 things as a human I think we can do. But only 3 as a sikh. But it requires beimg a really good, having strong faith kind of sikh. 

1. You can do takiya as muslims do. Under duress, renounce ur religion. And when needed worship the idols. Not that sikhi believes that bowing down  equals u believing in that religion. Its wats in ur heart that counts. While there were many sikhs who fought in jungles. There were also sehajdhari sikhs or sikhs in secret. They kept no outwards appearance of a sikh. And hid their identity and helped sikhs in secret..but as a real amritdhari sikh, one can not really denounce the religion. 

Plus sikh women,.did face this dilemma. When their innocent  children were being tortured. 

2. A sikh can pray. When nothing is in our control. We can ask God for help. Like prehlad did, like Guru Arjan Dev ji did when sulhi came to attack. This atleast will let us not feel guilty. Like God, i put it into ur hands. Save us if u want,.otherwise accept our sacrifice. Also, the torturers are the bad ppl, ur not doing anything bad. So dont fall into their trick, dont feel guilty. Only they deserve guilt who are doing wrong. 

3. A sikh can issue a challenge. He can ask that instead of punishing them. Punish me. Torture me so much that if i cower and denounce my religion. Everyone will know my prophet is false. And all that ive taught u is lies. Make it so the challenge is compelling for them. This way they only torture u, not ur congregation. This is similar to what Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji did for the kashmiri pandits.

4. You can accept martyrdom happily and inspire ur congregation to do the same. Like lets all do simran as they torture us. We can do it. This is our paap karma being cleansed. Lets laugh at the torturers. This is the most you can do? Remind urself and ur congregation that this life is transitory as is pain. Real life begins after death and lets pass this test with honor. Also even if ur congregation denounced the religion, u as the leader should not. Martyrdom is really powerful. It lives on in legends. So if u give up, it will be seen as defeat of ur cause. If u die for ur cause, ur cause will live on. 

As u can see, number 1 is easy and the rest are hard. Lets be realistic. Wat number we choose depends on our character and inner strength. It has nothing to do with being a sikh. In the past all sikhs seemed to have this character and strength. Now,.i dont think so.