# Leela Square 27: Selfless service (parmarth) Meaning

Square 27 in Leela is Selfless service, parmarth in Sanskrit, and it is the base of an arrow. Working for something higher with no thought of reward lifts the player from the third row straight to square 41, the Human plane. Harish Johari stresses that service here is an inner attitude rather than a particular act.

## Meaning

For Johari, Selfless service means working for the supreme without concern for reward. He is careful to describe it as an attitude, not a deed: the same task can be service or self-promotion depending on what moves it. What counts is that the doer stops keeping accounts and lets the work belong to something larger than himself. Even small gestures count when they are offered this way, and large ones count for little when they are a bid for recognition.

Parmarth combines param, the highest or supreme, with artha, aim, purpose or meaning. It is action whose purpose lies beyond the self. In the game it closes the third row, the Theater of Karma, which is linked to Manipura, the navel chakra of fire. That row is about identity and power, and it ends with the one quality that dissolves the need for both.

Johari writes that the human plane “is often gained directly from the third chakra by the arrow of selfless service.” The arrow skips the whole fourth row and lands in the fifth, the row he titles Man Becomes Himself. The teaching is simple to state and hard to live: one becomes truly human by forgetting oneself in service, and that shortcut is open to anyone at any moment.

## On the board

Selfless service is the base of one of the game's strongest arrows: landing on 27 carries the player at once from row 3 to square 41, the Human plane in row 5. A player gets here by an ordinary throw, for example a 1 from Sorrow (26), a 2 from Good company (25), a 4 from the Celestial plane (23) or a 6 from Atonement (21). No snake leads to this square.

The square is paired with Gita 3.9: action done as an offering does not bind, so serve the wholeness of the world rather than a reward, as Krishna himself serves while needing nothing. Its Mahabharata image is Krishna acting as Arjuna's charioteer, a god taking the humble seat of service.

## Questions

- Whom does my work really serve?
- Where am I still waiting for thanks or credit?
- What could I do today with no one ever knowing?

**What happens when you land on square 27 in Leela?**
Square 27, Selfless service, is the base of an arrow. When you land on it your symbol climbs immediately from the third row to square 41, the Human plane in the fifth row. Johari says the human plane is often reached directly this way, by the arrow of selfless service, skipping the entire row of the heart.

**What does parmarth mean in the game of Leela?**
Parmarth is the Sanskrit name of square 27, Selfless service. It joins param, the highest, with artha, aim or purpose: action whose aim lies beyond oneself. Johari describes it as an attitude rather than a specific act, working for the supreme without concern for reward, and it is one of the board's ten arrows.