Square 25: Good company (su-sang-loka)

Square 25 in Leela is Good company, su-sang-loka in Sanskrit. It stands for a fellowship of seekers, often gathered around a teacher, who act as mirrors for one another. It sits in the third row, the Theater of Karma, right after the snake of Bad company, and Harish Johari reads it as safe ground on the way to the heart.

What square 25 means

Harish Johari describes Good company as the fellowship of people who are looking for the same thing. Such a circle often forms around a teacher, but its real work happens between the members: each one reflects the others, so habits and blind spots become visible without anyone having to point at them. Johari adds that from here “there are no more traps to bar his way to the fourth level.”

The Sanskrit name su-sang-loka joins su, good, with sang, company or association, and loka, plane. Its mirror image is square 24, ku-sang-loka, Bad company, where the same need for belonging turns sour and a snake drops the player to Conceit at 7. The two squares stand side by side for a reason: the board shows that the people around you can pull you down or hold you up.

Good company belongs to the Theater of Karma, the row of Manipura, the navel chakra of fire, where the player looks for identity and power and first becomes aware of karma. In that search for a self, the square teaches that identity is shaped in relationship. A good circle does not flatter; it reflects. It also makes the next steps of the row, sorrow and service, easier to carry.

On the board

Good company is a plain square: no arrow and no snake starts or ends here. A player reaches it by an ordinary throw from the squares just below it in row 3, often having just slipped past the snake of Bad company at 24. From 25 the next throw matters: a 2 lands on Selfless service (27) and its arrow to 41, a 3 on Apt religion (28) and its arrow to 50, and a 4 on Irreligiosity (29), whose snake falls to 6.

The Bhagavad Gita and this square

The verse for this square is Gita 4.34: seek one who knows, come with humility, questions and service, and the truth will be shown to you. Its Mahabharata echo is Arjuna choosing Krishna over his army, a seeker preferring the right company to strength in numbers.

Seek one who knows, come with humility, questions and service, and the truth will be shown to you. Good company wakes the best in you.

Gita 4.34 · Arjuna chooses Krishna over his army

Questions to reflect on

• Who supports me on my path?
• Whose company leaves me clearer, and whose leaves me smaller?
• What do I bring to the people who walk beside me?