# Leela Square 29: Irreligiosity (adharma) Meaning

Square 29 in Leela is Irreligiosity, adharma in Sanskrit, and it is the head of a snake. It stands for blind faith that ignores the laws of the game, belief without understanding. Landing here sends the player from the fourth row, the row of the heart, all the way down to square 6, Delusion, which Johari calls the start of the game.

## Meaning

Johari's Irreligiosity is not a lack of belief. It is belief that has lost its understanding: blind faith that ignores cosmic law, rules followed without seeing what they are for. He also describes it as an imbalance of the gunas, the three qualities of nature, so that action no longer fits the moment. It is acting against oneself while feeling right. From outside it can look like devotion; from inside it often feels like certainty.

Adharma is the negation of dharma, the a- of Sanskrit turning order into its absence. On the board it sits right beside square 28, Apt religion, sudharma, which is the arrow of one's own dharma. The pairing is precise: the same impulse toward faith either becomes a practice that fits you and rises to 50, or hardens into a rigid creed and falls. The board also pairs it with the arrow of the Plane of dharma at 22.

Irreligiosity lies in the fourth row, Attaining Balance, linked to Anahata, the heart chakra of air. A fall from the heart is a sharp lesson: even a player who has come this far can lose the thread if faith stops listening. Johari says of it, “It is a snake that takes one back to delusion, back to the start of the game.”

## On the board

Irreligiosity is a snake head in row 4: landing on 29 drops the player at once to square 6, Delusion, in the first row. It is the only snake in the fourth row, and it falls three rows. Square 6 is also where every player first enters the game, which is why Johari speaks of a return to the start. A player reaches 29 by a throw such as a 3 from Sorrow (26), a 4 from Good company (25) or a 6 from the Celestial plane (23).

The verse is Gita 4.7: Krishna comes whenever adharma rises, so when you see truth trampled, remember that lawlessness never has the last word. The Mahabharata episode is the attempt to disrobe Draupadi, adharma at its most naked, and the moment it fails.

## Questions

- Where am I acting against myself?
- Which of my beliefs have I never actually examined?
- Where do I follow a rule while ignoring what it was meant to protect?

**What happens when you land on square 29 in Leela?**
Square 29, Irreligiosity (adharma), is the head of a snake. Landing on it brings your symbol down from the fourth row to square 6, Delusion, in the first row. Johari calls it a snake that takes one back to delusion, back to the start of the game, since square 6 is where every player first enters play.

**Why is Irreligiosity a snake in Leela if it is about faith?**
In Johari's reading Irreligiosity is not the absence of faith but blind faith: belief that ignores cosmic law and no longer understands itself. That is why it lies next to Apt religion (28), the arrow of one's own dharma. The board treats unexamined belief as a fall into Delusion (6), not as a failure to believe.