Square 70: True nature (satoguna)
Leela Atlas team · Updated
Square 70 in Leela is True nature, satoguna in Sanskrit, the guna of sattva, in the top row beyond the chakras. It is reached by passing the goal at 68. Johari explains that truth bound to the karma die appears here through the three gunas, but the ring is still there: the player has not been freed and must return to earth.
What square 70 means
Johari places the three gunas at the very end of the board, and sattva comes first. Here truth, still bound to the karma die, shows itself through the qualities of nature. The player's state is clear, light and harmonious. Yet Johari's point is simple and firm: the ring that stands for the player is still on the board. A pure state is not the same as liberation.
Satoguna, or sattvaguna, is the guna of sattva: purity, light, balance and knowledge. Of the three qualities it is the closest to truth, which is why Johari calls it true nature. Rajas, activity, follows at 71, and tamas, inertia, at 72. Together the three describe all of prakriti, and they close the board as the last thing a player passes through before falling back to earth.
The lesson of square 70 is subtle. It is easy to see greed or anger as obstacles; it is harder to see goodness as one. Sattva binds through attachment to happiness and to knowledge, to the satisfaction of being right or being good. A player who has overshot the goal discovers that purity can also become a place to sit. The square invites holding even virtue lightly.
On the board
No arrow or snake leads to square 70; a player arrives only by overshooting 68, from 64 with a six or from 65, 66, 67 or 69 by count. It is a plain square with no arrow and no snake. From here a two reaches 72, a one moves to 71, and any larger throw, which would pass 72, is lost. The way back to the goal runs through 72 and Earth.
The Bhagavad Gita and this square
Gita 14.6 is the verse for square 70: sattva is pure and illuminating, yet it too binds, through attachment to happiness and knowledge. Vidura, the counsellor of dharma, wise and upright yet still bound to the court he served, embodies this luminous but binding quality.
Sattva is pure and illuminating, yet it too binds, through attachment to happiness and knowledge. Freedom comes when you go beyond all three gunas.
Gita 14.6 · Vidura, counsellor of dharma
Questions to reflect on
- Where is my purity turning into attachment?
- Which of my virtues do I hold on to because it makes me feel right?
- What would it mean to be good without needing to be seen as good?
Questions
What happens when you land on square 70 in Leela?
Square 70, True nature, is a plain square past the goal. You cannot return to 68 directly. A two takes you to 72, whose snake brings you down to 51, Earth; a one moves you to 71. Any throw higher than two would pass 72 and is lost, so you wait for one of those numbers.
What does satoguna mean in Leela?
Satoguna, or sattvaguna, is the guna of sattva, the quality of purity, light and harmony. In Leela it is square 70, called True nature, the first of the three gunas that close the board. Johari teaches that even this pure quality binds, so the player must still return to earth before reaching liberation.
Why are the three gunas at the end of the Leela board?
Squares 70, 71 and 72 are sattva, rajas and tamas, the three qualities of nature. Johari places them after the goal so that a player who overshoots 68 passes through the forces that keep beings in the world. The last, tamas at 72, is a snake back to Earth, so the climb can begin again.
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