Square 52: Plane of violence (himsa-loka)
Leela Atlas team · Updated
Square 52 in Leela is the Plane of violence, himsa-loka. It is the danger of the sixth chakra: zeal and force used in the name of an idea, even a spiritual one. A snake waits here. It draws the player down to square 35, Purgatory, in the fourth row, where Johari says the harm done must be atoned for.
What square 52 means
Johari places violence high on the board, in the row of penance, and the placement is deliberate. This is not the crude aggression of the lower chakras. It is the violence of conviction: the zealot who knows that no one truly dies and therefore feels entitled to wage holy wars. Insight without humility becomes a licence.
The Sanskrit himsa means harm, injury, the will to hurt. Its opposite, ahimsa, is one of the first principles of yoga. That this square sits only two places after the Plane of austerity is a lesson in itself: the heat of discipline, turned outward or turned harshly inward, can become harm.
Square 52 belongs to row 6, The Time of Penance, and the Ajna chakra. The third eye gives clarity, and clarity can harden into certainty. When a player forces themselves or others to fit an idea, they lose the very discernment this row is meant to build.
The snake does not punish for its own sake. It shows where force leads: to Purgatory, the square of atonement, where one faces the effects of what was done and begins to repair. Repair begins with seeing clearly, without excuses and without self-hatred, what one's certainty has cost others.
On the board
Square 52 sits in row 6, The Time of Penance, and is reached by an ordinary throw, since no arrow or snake ends here. It is the head of a snake. A player who lands on 52 slides down to square 35, Purgatory, falling from row 6 to row 4, where the climb continues after atonement.
The Bhagavad Gita and this square
Gita 2.19 teaches that the Self neither kills nor is killed, but that is no excuse for violence: action without ego is nothing like cruelty in the name of an idea. Ashvatthama's night raid on the sleeping Pandava camp is the epic's darkest picture of that confusion.
The Self neither kills nor is killed. But this is no excuse for violence: action without ego is nothing like cruelty in the name of an idea.
Gita 2.19 · Ashvatthama's night raid
Questions to reflect on
- Where am I forcing myself or others?
- Which belief of mine has become a reason to stop listening?
- What would repair look like where I have caused harm?
Questions
What happens when you land on square 52 in Leela?
Square 52, the Plane of violence, is the head of a snake. Landing on it sends the player down to square 35, Purgatory, a fall from the sixth row to the fourth. Johari describes Purgatory as the place where the player must atone before climbing again.
Why is violence so high on the Leela board?
Because this is the violence of the sixth chakra, not of instinct. Johari describes zealotry and holy wars waged by those who know that no one really dies. Spiritual insight without humility can justify harm, and the board places that risk right beside austerity.
Related squares
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