Square 15: Plane of fantasy (naga-loka)
Leela Atlas team · Updated
Square 15 in Leela is the Plane of fantasy, naga-loka in Sanskrit. It stands for free, unrestrained imagination, the source from which art is born. Because naga means snake, Johari calls it the snake plane, and the very next square is the snake of Jealousy. Square 15 celebrates creative freedom and shows how close it sits to its shadow.
What square 15 means
For Johari, the Plane of fantasy is imagination without limits. Here the mind is free to invent, to play with images and to create worlds. This is the fertile ground of painting, music, poetry and every kind of creative work. After the Astral plane opens the inner world, square 15 shows what imagination can do when it is let loose. Nothing here is yet wrong; imagination is simply free.
The Sanskrit name naga-loka means the world of the nagas, the serpent beings of Indian myth who live in the waters and the underworld and guard hidden treasures. On a board of snakes and arrows the name is a deliberate signal: this is the snake plane. Unbounded fantasy carries a hidden risk, and the risk is waiting one step away.
The square belongs to the second row, the Realm of Fantasy, ruled by the Svadhisthana chakra and the element of water. Water takes any shape, and so does imagination. The same power that creates a song can also imagine a rival, a betrayal, a loss that has not happened. That is the path from 15 to 16. The teaching here is to keep fantasy as a creative force while watching the moment it starts producing fear and suspicion.
On the board
Square 15 is a plain square in row 2, the Realm of Fantasy. No arrow or snake leads here, so a player arrives by a normal throw, and nothing moves you on once you land. The danger lies directly ahead: square 16, Jealousy, is a snake down to 4 Greed. One square beyond it, 17 Mercy is an arrow up to 69, the Absolute plane.
The Bhagavad Gita and this square
Gita 2.67 warns that a mind chasing the wandering senses carries reason off as the wind drives a boat on the water; fantasy is fine as long as you hold the rudder. The Mahabharata tells of Ulupi taking Arjuna down to the land of the Nagas, a journey into the very world this square is named after.
A mind that chases the wandering senses carries reason off like wind drives a boat. Fantasy is fine as long as you hold the rudder.
Gita 2.67 · Ulupi takes Arjuna to the land of the Nagas
Questions to reflect on
- Which of my fantasies wants to become real?
- Where does my imagination create, and where does it start to frighten me?
- What would I make if I trusted my imagination fully?
Questions
What happens on square 15 in Leela?
Square 15, the Plane of fantasy, is a plain square: you stay here until your next throw. It invites you to look at your imagination as a creative force. The board's tension is that the next square, 16 Jealousy, is a snake, so the player is reminded how quickly free fantasy can turn into fearful imagining.
Why is square 15 called the snake plane?
Its Sanskrit name is naga-loka, and naga means snake or serpent being. Johari points out the double meaning: in a game of snakes and arrows, the plane of unrestrained fantasy is literally named after snakes, and the snake of Jealousy lies just ahead. Imagination without a rudder is where the bite begins.
Is imagination bad in Leela?
No. Johari calls the Plane of fantasy the source of art, and Leela does not treat imagination as a fault. What the board shows is direction. Imagination that creates enriches life; imagination that invents rivals and losses leads to Jealousy at 16 and down to Greed at 4. The square asks you to notice which of the two is at work.
Related squares
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