# Leela Square 10: Purification (shuddhi) Meaning

Square 10 in Leela is Purification, shuddhi in Sanskrit, and it holds the first arrow of the game. Changing your senses, actions and daily habits lifts you straight from square 10 to square 23, the Celestial plane. It opens row 2, The Realm of Fantasy. The square asks which habit you are ready to let go of.

## Meaning

Harish Johari writes that "purification is the first arrow of the game." In his account, the player raises his vibration by reforming the senses, the organs of action and daily habits, and this lifts him "immediately to the celestial plane." Purification here is concrete: what you eat, watch, say and repeat each day.

The Sanskrit shuddhi means cleansing or purity. It does not mean rejecting the body or the world. It means removing what clouds perception, so that energy collected on the sensual plane can rise instead of circling. It is fitting that square 10 follows the Sensual plane directly: desire, once refined, becomes the lift.

Purification opens row 2, The Realm of Fantasy, linked with Svadhisthana, the second chakra, and the water element. Water is the classic image of cleansing. The arrow from 10 to 23 jumps a whole row and lands in the third, The Theater of Karma. The teaching is hopeful and practical: small, steady changes in habit can move a person further than effort spent only in thought.

In reflective play the arrow is a reminder that change is often simpler than it looks. A single habit adjusted with care, kept over time, can shift how the senses work and how energy moves. Players landing here often take it as encouragement to choose one concrete practice rather than many vague intentions.

## On the board

Square 10 is reached by an ordinary throw from squares 4 to 9, as the player leaves the first row. No arrow or snake leads into it. Landing here triggers the first arrow of the game: the symbol rises at once from square 10 to square 23, the Celestial plane, in row 3. Square 10 itself opens row 2, The Realm of Fantasy.

Gita 5.11 describes acting with body, mind and senses, free of attachment, for self-purification. Arjuna's penance and his meeting with the Kirata, Shiva in the guise of a hunter, show discipline humbled and refined before a higher gift is given.

## Questions

- Which habit am I ready to let go of?
- What do I take in each day, through eyes, ears or mouth, that leaves me heavier?
- Which small daily practice would make the biggest difference if I kept it?

**What happens when you land on square 10 in Leela?**
Square 10, Purification, is the base of the first arrow of the game. Landing here carries the symbol straight up to square 23, the Celestial plane, skipping the rest of row 2. In reflective play it marks a moment when changing habits and senses lifts you quickly. The next throw is made from square 23.

**Where does the arrow on square 10 go in Leela?**
The arrow of Purification on square 10 rises to square 23, the Celestial plane (swarga-loka), the central square of the third row. Johari says purification lifts the player "immediately to the celestial plane". It is the first arrow on the board and the only one in the first two rows apart from Mercy on 17.

**What does shuddhi mean?**
Shuddhi is Sanskrit for purification or cleansing. In Leela it names square 10, the first arrow. Johari describes it as reforming the senses, the organs of action and daily habits so that one's vibration rises. It opens the second row, linked with Svadhisthana and the water element.