Square 8: Avarice (matsar / matsarya)
Leela Atlas team · Updated
Square 8 in Leela is Avarice, matsar or matsarya in Sanskrit: greed joined with envy, a resentment of what others have. It is the tail of the board's first snake, Envy on square 12. Harish Johari says avarice is born of conceit. The square asks an uncomfortable but freeing question: whose good fortune stings you, and why?
What square 8 means
Johari describes avarice as greed coupled with envy. Greed alone wants more; avarice also minds that others have it. It looks sideways at someone else's possessions, success or happiness and feels spite. In this sense avarice is less about getting and more about comparing.
The Sanskrit matsar, or matsarya, carries this mix of jealousy and meanness. Johari places its birth in conceit, the square just before it: once you are inflated by false pride, the success of others feels like an insult. He also writes that "avarice is linked with the snake of envy", and on the board the first snake of the game, from square 12, ends here.
Avarice sits in row 1, The Fundamentals of Being, with Muladhara, the root chakra, and the earth element. It completes a cluster of first-row passions: anger, greed, delusion, conceit and avarice. The teaching is practical. Spite toward another person's fortune points straight at a desire of your own. Naming that desire honestly takes the sting out of comparison.
In a reading of your own game, a stop on Avarice is a chance to look at comparison directly. Whose life do you measure yours against? Envy often goes quiet once the wish behind it is named and taken seriously, because energy spent resenting another person can then be turned toward your own path.
On the board
Square 8 is reached through the snake of Envy, the first snake of the game: a player who lands on square 12, in the second row, falls back to Avarice. It can also be reached by an ordinary throw from squares 2 to 7. Square 8 has no arrow or snake of its own. From here the player continues forward through row 1, The Fundamentals of Being.
Snakes arriving here: 12 Envy.
The Bhagavad Gita and this square
Gita 4.22 describes the sage as content with what comes unasked and free of envy. The story of Drona and Drupada, childhood friends divided when one became a king and refused to share, shows how a grudge over what another holds can shape a whole life.
The sage is content with what comes unasked, free of envy and meanness. The tighter you grip what is yours, the less peace you have.
Gita 4.22 · Drona and Drupada
Questions to reflect on
- Whose good fortune stings me, and why?
- What do I actually want that this comparison is pointing to?
- Where could I share more freely what I am holding tightly?
Questions
What happens when you land on square 8 in Leela?
Square 8, Avarice, is plain: no arrow and no snake. Players usually arrive by the snake from square 12, Envy, or by a short throw from the squares just before it. The symbol rests until the next throw. In reflection, the stop asks you to notice resentment toward others' fortune and what it reveals about your own wishes.
What is the difference between greed and avarice in Leela?
Greed, square 4, is inner emptiness mistaken for a lack of things. Avarice, square 8, adds envy: it resents what others have. Johari links greed to the snake of jealousy from 16 and avarice to the snake of envy from 12. Greed grasps; avarice grasps and compares.
What does matsarya mean?
Matsar or matsarya is Sanskrit for envy mixed with meanness, often translated as avarice or spite. In Leela it names square 8. Johari describes it as greed coupled with envy, born of conceit, and linked with the snake of envy on square 12.
Related squares
Play Leela now
Bring a question, throw the die and follow the arrows and snakes. Alone, with friends or with a guide.
Start a game