# Leela Square 9: Sensual plane (kama-loka) Meaning

Square 9 in Leela is the Sensual plane, kama-loka in Sanskrit: the plane of desires of every kind. Harish Johari calls it the first stage of evolution and the ladder to purification in the next row. Players reach it by gradual passage or through the snake of Ignorance on square 44. It asks which desire is leading you right now.

## Meaning

Johari treats kama, desire, as the driving force of the first stage of evolution. Without desire nothing moves: the player would never leave the base of the board. Square 9 is therefore not a trap but a threshold, the last square of row 1 and the step that leads up to row 2 and Purification on square 10.

Kama-loka means the world or plane of desire. In Johari's reading it holds desire in all its forms, from bodily appetites to ambition and longing. The question is not whether to desire but which desires lead somewhere and which simply repeat. Desire that is noticed and refined becomes the ladder he describes.

The Sensual plane closes row 1, The Fundamentals of Being, with Muladhara, the root chakra, and the earth element. Johari says it can be reached "through the mouth of the snake of ignorance", from square 44, or by gradual passage through the row. That double approach teaches something: desire can be a step forward after patient work, or a fall back when knowledge is forgotten.

In play, the Sensual plane is a place to look at desire without shame and without indulgence. The square stands at the very edge of the first row, so whatever desire you name here is also the one you carry upward. Seeing it clearly is how the next square, Purification, becomes possible.

## On the board

Square 9 is reached in two ways. Players coming up through row 1 arrive by an ordinary throw from squares 3 to 8. Players high on the board can fall here through the snake of Ignorance, which carries a symbol from square 44, in the fifth row, down to 9. Square 9 has no arrow or snake of its own; it is the last square of row 1, and the next step leads to Purification on square 10.

Gita 3.39 says desire hides knowledge as smoke hides fire, yet desire in line with dharma is also divine. King Yayati, who traded years of youth to go on enjoying, learned at length that desire is not quenched by feeding it.

## Questions

- Which desire is leading me right now?
- Which of my desires would still feel right a year from now?
- What does this desire ask me to refine rather than give up?

**What happens when you land on square 9 in Leela?**
Square 9, the Sensual plane, has no arrow or snake. The symbol stays until the next throw and then moves into row 2. Players arrive by a normal throw through row 1 or by falling from square 44, Ignorance. The stop invites you to name the desire currently steering you and ask where it is taking you.

**Is desire bad in Leela?**
No. Johari calls the sensual plane the first stage of evolution and the ladder to purification. Desire moves the player off the base of the board. The game asks you to tell apart desires that lead to growth from those that only repeat, which is why square 10, Purification, follows directly.

**What does kama-loka mean?**
Kama-loka is Sanskrit for the plane or world of desire. In Leela it is square 9, the last square of the first row, linked with Muladhara. Johari describes it as the plane of desire of every kind, reached either gradually or "through the mouth of the snake of ignorance" on square 44.