Square 22: Plane of dharma (dharma-loka)

Square 22 in Leela is the Plane of dharma, dharma-loka in Sanskrit, and it holds one of the strongest arrows in the game. Landing here lifts the player from the third row to square 60, Positive intellect, in the seventh row. Johari defines dharma as conscious action in harmony with the cosmic order, and he calls the arrows of the board dharmas, virtues.

What square 22 means

For Johari, dharma is the axis of the whole game. He describes it as conscious action in accord with the law that holds the universe together, and he gives ten signposts of it as guides for living. He also states the board's central idea: the arrows are dharmas, virtues, and the snakes are adharmas, vices. Square 22 is the plane where that principle is met directly.

The Sanskrit dharma comes from a root meaning to hold or to support. Dharma is what holds a life upright: duty, right conduct, the inner law of one's own nature. Dharma-loka is the world in which action is aligned with that law. It follows Atonement on the board: once the harm of the past is repaired, the player can act rightly.

The arrow is long because dharma touches every level. From the Manipura chakra and the fire of the third row, the player is lifted to 60, Positive intellect, in the Sahasrara row. Johari explains that positive intellect is reached by following the path of dharma, which is exactly where this arrow ends. Square 22 teaches that clear thinking grows from living rightly, and that knowing one's duty and acting on it is itself an ascent.

On the board

Square 22 is the foot of an arrow in row 3, the Theater of Karma, right after Atonement at 21. A player reaches it by an ordinary throw; no other arrow or snake ends here. Landing on 22 lifts you to square 60, Positive intellect, in row 7, the Plane of Reality, under the Sahasrara chakra. It is one of the longest climbs on the board, from row 3 to row 7.

The Bhagavad Gita and this square

Gita 4.7 says that when dharma weakens, the Divine comes to restore it; your path now is to understand what duty asks of you and stand on its side. In the Mahabharata, Vidura, wise counsellor and dharma embodied, keeps speaking for what is right in a court that will not listen.

When dharma weakens, the Divine comes to restore it. Your path now: understand what duty asks of you, and stand on its side.

Gita 4.7 · Vidura, dharma embodied

Questions to reflect on

• What do I owe to myself and to the world?
• Where do I already know the right thing to do but hesitate?
• Which of my habits keeps my life upright?