# Leela Square 34: Plane of taste (rasa-loka) Meaning

Square 34 in Leela is the Plane of taste, rasa-loka in Sanskrit. Taste here is meant in the aesthetic sense of rasa: the essence of emotion and poetry, the flavour of an experience fully felt. It lies in the fourth row, Attaining Balance, after the Plane of fragrance, and it is a plain square with no arrow or snake.

## Meaning

Johari treats the Plane of taste as taste in the aesthetic sense: rasa, the essence of emotion and poetry. He adds that refined taste draws admirers. A person whose perception has become fine radiates something others recognise and are drawn to, not through display but through the quality of attention they bring to food, art, conversation and feeling.

Rasa has several layers in Sanskrit. It means juice or sap, the taste of food, and, in Indian aesthetics, the emotional flavour that a poem, a piece of music or a dance awakens in the one who receives it. Rasa-loka is the plane where these meanings meet. The tongue's taste, linked to the water element and the second chakra, returns here transformed into the capacity to savour life itself. Classical Indian theory names several rasas, such as love, wonder, compassion and peace, each a different way the heart can be moved.

Coming after Fragrance, this square completes the pair of refined senses in the heart row of Anahata, the heart chakra of air. The teaching is to refine taste rather than suppress it. A life of rasa is not a life of more pleasure but of deeper pleasure, where the player tastes each experience fully and needs less of it.

## On the board

The Plane of taste is a plain square in row 4, with no arrow or snake beginning or ending here. A player arrives by an ordinary throw, a 1 from the Plane of fragrance (33), a 2 from the Plane of balance (32), a 3 from the Plane of sanctity (31) or a 4 from Good tendencies (30). From 34, a throw of 3 lands on True awareness (37), whose arrow rises to the Plane of bliss at 66.

Its verse is Gita 7.8, where Krishna is the taste of water: the craving for sense objects fades only once you have tasted the Highest, so refine your taste rather than suppress it. The Mahabharata episode is Arjuna living as Brihannala, the great warrior teaching dance and music at the court of Virata.

## Questions

- What does my life taste like right now?
- What experience have I rushed through without really tasting it?
- Where could I take less and savour more?

**What does the Plane of taste (square 34) mean in Leela?**
Square 34, the Plane of taste (rasa-loka), is taste in the aesthetic sense: rasa, the essence of emotion and poetry. Johari notes that refined taste draws admirers. Landing here invites you to ask what your life tastes like right now, and whether you are truly savouring your experiences or simply consuming them.

**What is rasa in the game of Leela?**
Rasa is the Sanskrit word behind square 34, rasa-loka. It means juice or flavour, and in Indian aesthetics the emotional essence that art awakens in the one who receives it. In Leela it marks the heart row's refinement of the senses: taste becomes the ability to savour life deeply rather than to crave more of it.