Square 43: Birth of man (manushya-janma)

Square 43 in Leela is Birth of man, manushya-janma. Johari describes it as birth as a true human being, without caste, creed or nation, with reason in the service of truth. It is a plain square in the fifth row, and it asks the player a simple, searching question: what kind of person do I want to become?

What square 43 means

Johari calls this square birth as a true Man, "son of God only", without caste, creed or nation. The player has been physically born at square 1, Genesis. Here a second birth takes place: the emergence of a person whose identity no longer rests on origin, status or group, and whose reason serves truth rather than self-interest.

Manushya means human, and janma means birth. The name echoes square 1, janma, but the meaning has deepened. At the start of the game birth was entry into karma. In row 5, birth is becoming fully human, a person who sees others as equals because the same Self lives in all.

The square belongs to row 5, Man Becomes Himself, linked to Vishuddha, the throat chakra. It follows 42, the Plane of fire, where the old was burned away, and precedes 44 Ignorance and 45 Right knowledge, a choice between forgetting and practice.

The teaching is that being human is not given by birth alone. It is something you grow into, through the way you think, choose and treat others. Square 43 invites you to picture the person you could become and to measure your present against that picture, kindly but honestly.

On the board

Square 43 sits in row 5, between 42 the Plane of fire and 44 Ignorance. Players reach it by a throw from the squares below, from 38 to 42; square 37 is an arrow base, so nobody stays there to throw. No arrow or snake begins or ends here, so it is a plain square. From 43 the next throw can carry the player onto the snake at 44 or the arrow at 45.

The Bhagavad Gita and this square

The verse is Gita 5.18: the wise see the same Self in a brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste, so true human birth lies in clarity of sight rather than origin. Its episode is Karna at the tournament, where he is mocked for his supposed low birth despite his skill.

The wise see the same Self in a brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste. True human birth lies not in origin but in clarity of sight.

Gita 5.18 · Karna at the tournament

Questions to reflect on

• What kind of person do I want to become?
• Where do I still judge people by where they come from?
• Does my reasoning serve the truth, or does it serve what I want to be true?