Apart from gifting tarot-lovers a brand-new designed set of Tarot deck, the purpose of these cards is to remind all Bharatiya of our culture, roots and dharma and also to spread a few words about our beautiful culture and Sanatan dharma around the world.
To clarify, dharma is not actually religion. Especially when we are talking about SANATAN- it is a way of dutiful living and a culture. Culture basically means behaviours that are learned. Think of how you were taught by your mother how to pray to God by joining palms and fingers – that’s a behaviour you have learned and the culture you practice. The word ‘Sanatan’, means- something that has been sustaining; ‘Dharma’ means something that upholds and something that is a duty. As an example, water’s dharma is to flow or make something wet, fire’s dharma is to burn or give light. Analogically, a Sanatani’s dharma is to take actions based on principles of Karma. This way of dutiful living has been here (in the land of Bharat) for at least 70000 years which has helped humanity to survive and evolve. The whole world used to perform Sanatan before any other religion emerged. This is why we can see similar culture among the aboriginals of any land, like the Romani (in Europe), Red Indians (in America), Australian aboriginals (in Australia), Maori (in New Zealand) etc. Peopls of these tribes not only practise similar culture, but they also look like Indians.
As modern science says- Apes are forefathers of Homo Erectus, who survived the last ice age (1.1 lakh years ago). Homo Erectus are forefathers of Neanderthals and Denisovans, who started reigning on earth 70000 years ago and they started using fire and stone. This is where, their brains were developed enough to respect different materials, natural phenomena and good qualities. This is why, in the Rig Ved, we get gods like Agni (Fire god), Varun (Water god), Indra (Thunder god), Som (Moon god), Mitra (god of friendship, loyalty or god of light), Vishnu (operator, or in a sense, god of balance and responsibilities). Though Rig Ved, as a physical scripture, is 7000-8000 years old (similar to Tamil Sangam literature), we need to keep in mind that Ved is also called ‘Shruti’ because the lessons were transmitted verbally from generations to generations. Therefore, the Vedas (or the teachings of the Veda) are older than 8000 years.
The difference between Sanatan Dharma and other religions is that Sanatan is very open to experimentations, debates, doubts and questions. One just has to ask the right questions with an open mind to get the answers. Neither blind faith, nor ignorant audacity is useful to truly understand Sanatan dharma. And this is why, anyone with genuine interest is welcome to be doubtful about why things are the way they are in Sanatan. This is how Arjun received the knowledge of Geeta from Sri Krishna during Kurukshetra war, and our other beloved gods like Ram, Sita, Shiv etc. had to prove themselves to earn Godhood. They are not beyond the rules of Dharma and Karma. On the other hand, religions are a set of rules that state do-s and don’t-s without giving much chance of argument.
Furthermore, one difference between other religions and Sanatan is that, the latter focuses more on spiritual development rather than social contribution. In simpler words, Sanatani people take meditation, yog, sadhana, tantra, puja-pathh etc more seriously than developing the society. At least this was the case before 1000 years ago when invasions and inquisitions did not start happening. There was (still remains!!) a 4-stage sociological system – Brahmacharya, Garhyastha, Vanaprastha, Sanyaas.
- In the first stage, one would learn from guru (teacher) to acquire skills.
- Then the person would get married and nurture a family and perform social duties like different jobs based on their skills.
- Then, Vanaprastha is about exploring different spiritual paths to find one path,
- Lastly, Sanyaas is to follow that path to completely sacrifice materialism and devote to the god in order to attain samadhi or moksha.
Grihastha life would end at around 40 years and a Sanatani person would spend the rest of his life (almost half of the life) in search of spirituality. Though, today the level of intensity to find spirituality is low, it is still more than other religions in general. We just try to give back to the world and society in a spiritual way, and that’s why there have been so many great sages from our culture even in modern times- from Sri Ramkrishna, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Mahabataar Babaji, Lahiri Mahashay, Paramhangsa Yogananda and Rishi Aurobindo to Sreela Pravupaad, Osho, Amma Amritanandamayi, Sadhguru and Neem Karoli Baba- all have enlightened humanity via spirituality (excuse me as I am not adding more names of our greater sages here because of lack of space and knowledge). And that is at least not inferior to financially helping the society. Today, we say that we don’t have time for spiritual practices because we are brainwashed to run after achievements. If you waste your 20s while doing PhD research, your 30s doing 9-6 jobs and then at 40 you try IVF to give birth to children, you’ll truly have very less time to find spiritual solace in just one lifetime. Every country has a particular ruling planet; in case of India, it is Brihaspati (Jupiter). Brihaspati, is called ‘Dev-guru’ because he enlightens others. This is one reason why the number of spiritual gurus emerged from the land of mystique is higher than any other countries. Bharat has always given the lesson of Dharma and humanity to the world.
Primarily I had no plan to write this book or create the full deck of the ‘Indian Tarots’ cards. I just created the set of 22 Major Arcana as a collectors’ edition in late 2022. It contained gods from Hinduism and relevant traits. Gradually, tarot-lovers started to appreciate it and asked me to make a full deck. Some even asked me about the relationship between the gods and the traits- in this book I have tried to discuss these aspects. I am happy to say that many Muslim & Christian people have purchased the major Arcana tarots cards, which made me believe that in India, Hindu-Muslim conflict is a baseless political propaganda developed by the western invaders. And, this propaganda could be built at the first place because of inefficient internal leadership; otherwise, if internal system is strong then what harm can any outsider do!! My personal belief is that the actual conflict is between pro-Bharat and anti-Bharat ideologies. There are people outside India who absolutely love our culture. We have seen Sister Nibedita, the Tatas, and many others who came and added to national glory. There are thousands of Russians who celebrate Sanatan in Iskcon. There are countless celebrities from foreign countries who visit India seeking spiritual solace and even convert into Sanatan. On the other hand, there are many so-called Indians who celebrate other’s culture ignoring their own. Many Indians don’t think twice before insulting their own motherland. And it is not their fault, it is fault of the education system that failed to make them proud of who they are, it is fault of the parents who failed to develop their children’s personality, and it is the fault of the fellow citizens who failed to rectify the spoilt ones from going that far. Some 130 years ago, Swami Vivekananda went from Bharat to America and represented our dharma and culture to make us proud. And now in 21st century, we are going there once again but only to make jokes about our culture and religion, without realising that it is shameful and immoral. We must develop the mental wiring that no matter how bad we are, we are still better than others.
Sanatan is a culture which could not be erased even after 1000 years of invasions. Whenever foreign invaders tried to oppress us by demolishing our temples, we simply established the deity in a new temple. Whenever they destroyed our deity idols, we simply worshipped without deity through meditation, tantra etc. Actually, it is our mindset that stopped Sanatan from being vanished. And it is so because we don’t depend upon a particular leader for Sanatan’s survival. Sanatan belongs equally to a brahman pandit and to a dalit. Even today, Sanatan is surviving through our mindset – in the way we dress in dhoti or saree, in the way we perform kirtan in front of Krishna’s idol, in the way we offer bhog-prasad to Ma Durga, in the way we dance in the rhythm of drum-beats during Ganesh puja, in the way we show respect through namaskar, in the way we wear tilak or sindoor – Sanatan survives through these learned behaviours and many more. And therefore, it is impossible to delete Sanatan through oppression. Rather, if we remember our culture and practise it, we can keep rising.
There is a beautiful Bengali poem by Michael Madhusudan Dutta, where Indrajit (Son of Raavan) shames Vibhishan (brother of Raavan who stood beside Raam, the enemy side).
গুণবান্ যদি পরজন, গুণহীন স্বজন, [Gunabaan yadi parajan, gunaheen swajan]
তথাপি নির্গুণ স্বজন শ্রেয়ঃ, পরঃ পরঃ সদা [Tathapi nirgun swajan shrey, para para sadaa]
– Extracted from ‘Meghnaad Badh’ by Michael Madhusudan
These two lines simple mean that even if others are better than own kind, still it is dharma to support own kind and consider them the best. If we can integrate this thought inside us, then rising on top of the world won’t take much time. I am not saying that one cannot raise question, I am just saying that one should have respect towards own roots and be logical while expressing thoughts.
Bharatiya culture is open and it welcomes curiosity and skepticism. It is so open that we can almost consider it as true liberalism – since the old ages we have practised inclusion. We have welcomed foreigners, we have treated third gender people respectfully, education rights have been offered to every gender equally, we have offered freedom in religious practices as well (Indians are free to worship any god at any point of life, or even become an atheist). However, this openness of Sanatan is also a double-edged sword because many people take is as a weakness and consider it as a weak philosophy and a culture of tolerance. And this is the fault of wrong upbringing of us, the Sanatani people. Dharma is to adore questions but not to compromise with insults. Dharma is to welcome debates but not to tolerate tortures in the name of religions. As an example, Tulsi (Basil) is given a huge significance in our culture. Someone may question why we do so – and there are both spiritual and scientific answers to that. Spiritually, Tulsi is directly related to Vishnu, the god of balance. Vishnu blessed Tulsi, who was a pious lady, to become one of the holiest rivers – ‘Gandoki’ in India, taking a dip in which cleanses human sins. Shalgram Shila (material manifestation of Vishnu in form of rock) is available only in this river. Also, Tulsi is blessed in such way that, even looking at it will purify souls and taking care of it will ensure that one’s forefather will attain eternal paradise. Moreover, offering just one Tulsi leaf to Vishnu or Krishna indicates the easiest way to showcase pure devotion towards him. To clarify another thing, in Sanatan scriptures, RadhaKrishna is considered the ultimate god. So, worshipping RadhaKrishna is a sensible way to become blessed in life. There are many more spiritual reasons which makes it worthy of worshipping. On the other hand, scientifically, Tulsi is significant because it cures many diseases like heart problems, cough, leprosy, liver problems, kidney infections, skin issues and more. From the oldest medical practices of Ayurved to modern cosmetics industry, Tulsi is used everywhere. And this is the reason why Tulsi is kept in all Hindu homes as an herb. Worshipping is nothing but a pure and high form of respect. We worship because we respect and we respect because we understand its worth in our spiritual and material lives.
All rituals in Sanatan have some science behind them, it is our fault that we have forgotten them, neglected them and been ignorant about them. We don’t respect because we don’t know. And we don’t know because the system does not teach us. It is necessary to understand when to be tolerant and when not to. Whenever, one’s existence is under threat, rebellion is necessary instead of tolerance. 100% tolerance simply means spinelessness. Some people may say that war, fight or blood-loss is not the answer and Hinduism is always about peacefulness. Well, let’s see some stats from history- Sanatani people have fought whenever their existence was under threat. If all freedom fighters kept silent, you can imagine what more could have happened to Indians. In the past, Sanatani people even waged wars to spread their own ideologies in other lands. As an example, many Bharatiya rulers like the Guptas, Mauryas, Cholas have conquered lands and spread our culture. This is why we see Hindu temples in foreign lands. Even, our own gods like Sri Raam have fought to save respect of his wife Sita. Sri Krishna fought the largest battle in the history to implement Dharma. Bhishma talked about ‘Ahimsa’ as the biggest duty, but not in return of immersing own rights. So, this ‘Hinduism talks only about peace’ is totally nonsense; those who think like that, are ignorant and they disrespect their dharma and motherland. Our culture tells us to stay calm and try our best to avoid any blood-loss but if existence and self-respect is under threat, we have all rights to fight back with our full force and cause havoc – that is the real dharma in that situation; considering ‘Himsa’ to protect Dharma is a great Dharma. Our country’s foreign and defence policies have always followed these lessons and that is why we have faith on our soldiers. Dharma and Politics go hand in hand, and in politics, there is very less space for Ahimsa. Gandhi talked about Ahimsa all his life, and at the end someone shot him dead- irony!!
In this guidebook, I have tried to mention a few devatas in Sanatan Dharma with some interesting, probably from some weird viewpoints, with the intention to remind all Bharatiyas about our glory. And also, with the intention to tell people from other religions that Sanatan is a celebration of dutiful qualities and cultures. Also, in this book, we have showcased some Bharatiya lifestyle through our exclusive art forms to make everyone realise that in pursuit of crystals that belong to others, we are ignoring the diamonds within us.
My intention is to make you understand why Sanatan is something to celebrate. These tarots are just a medium to do so.
