Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

to come, and these ten avatars correspond numericallyto the ten sephiroth in the Tree ofLife as well as to the ten pip cards in eachsuit. Early Indian playing cards contain eithereight or ten suits to a set and each suit comprisestwelve cards, consisting of numerals 1to 10 plus two court cards. The suit signs ofthe ten-suited pack are similar to the ten incarnationsor avatars of Vishnu."Michel Constant Leber, writing around 1842,believed that some of the Major Arcana cards werederived from early Eastern idols and symbols thatsubsequently changed under the influence of Christiandogma. Thus, Vishnu, the Indian deity, became LePape, the head of the Catholic Church; La Maison diDieu replaced an oriental pagoda; and the cloakedL'ermite was derived from a Muslim dervish. One ofthe adrogynous Hindu deities is known as Ardhanari;one-half of the god is Siva and the other half is hiswife of many names. This composite god has four arms:Siva holds in his hands a cup or drum (damaru) and awand or trident, while behind him sits a bull; hiswife holds a sword and circular ring or shield,and crouched behind her is a tiger. Thus the fourobjects held by Ardhanari are similar to the foursuits in playing cards. In Hindu mythology the wifeor sakti of Siva was also known as Bhairavi, theredoubtable; Ambika, the progenitor; Sati, the perfectwife; Gauri, the brilliant; and Durga, theinaccessible who had ten arms."Also on the same page the ancient Indian game of chess (chaturanga) is describedand its symbolism explained in terms of Hindu philosophy. Samuel Weller Singer,writing in 1816, proposed to show that cards were invented by Hindustanis,probably as an extension or alteration of the game of chess.If all this is true, wouldn't this mean that Tarot is a Vedic science thatshould be revived by ISKCON, in the sense that devotees can re-establish thetrue meaning and use of Tarot? Perhaps the BBT should print a deck of Tarotcards using the original forms of the Dasavatara. These could be copyrighted asTrue Tarot. And the BBT could provide a Krsna conscious manual for their use.Thank you for considering this question.Your servant,Bh Hap CamperAnswer by Suhotra SwamiMarch 26, 1995, 12:40 SWTI don't doubt that Tarot's origins can be traced to India. Western astrology isa similar offshoot of Vedic science. The problem is that Vedic and Vaisnavasciences are meant to be used by brahmanas. Prabhupada said that his mission wasto establish brahmanas in a headless society. The essential contribution of thebrahmanas is to act as the head and mouth of the Lord by speaking spiritualknowledge, give direction to society how to fulfill the human mission, and alsoto accept charity on behalf of the Lord. These are paratattva (spiritual)duties of the brahmanas, and these actually establish the genuine brahmana