Leela Board Levels and Chakras

The Leela board has 72 squares laid out in 8 rows of 9. In the classic version described by Harish Johari, the first seven rows correspond to the seven chakras, from Muladhara to Sahasrara, and the eighth row lies beyond them. Each row is a level with its own central theme, running from survival and insecurity at the bottom of the board to inner discernment at the top.

It is worth saying straight away: this is the game's traditional symbolic scheme, not anatomy and not a scientific model. Its value to a player lies elsewhere. It shows which level your question is actually playing out on.

How the board is built

Squares are numbered from the bottom up: 1 to 9 is the first row, 10 to 18 the second, and so on to 72. A square's number tells you immediately which level it belongs to.

The rows are connected by arrows and snakes. An arrow carries your piece upward, sometimes across several levels at once. A snake brings it down. So movement across the board is rarely smooth: a game lifts you a level, then returns you to themes that felt finished.

The full description of every square is on the page about the 72 Leela squares.

The eight levels

First row, squares 1–9. Muladhara: survival. The central theme is insecurity and material survival. Here sit Anger (3), Greed (4), Delusion (6), and Vanity (7). Square 6 is where your piece lands immediately after entering the game, so every game begins on this level. The question it asks a player is simple and uncomfortable: what am I afraid of losing?

Second row, 10–18. Svadhisthana: pleasure and fantasy. Material needs are met and energy scatters toward the objects of the senses. Entertainments (11), Envy (12), Plane of Fantasy (15), Jealousy (16). The game's texts describe this level as a place where it is easy to get absorbed and lose direction.

Third row, 19–27. Manipura: self-assertion. The theme of power and how it is used. Plane of Karma (19), Bad Company (24), and Good Company (25) sit side by side for a reason: the same energy of self-assertion leads either to misusing power or to leaning on the right people. The row ends with Selfless Service (27).

Fourth row, 28–36. Anahata: balance. The level where, according to the game's texts, a player comes to understand their role. True Religiosity (28), Plane of Balance (32), Clarity of Consciousness (36). The defining quality of this row is the ability to notice without judging straight away.

Fifth row, 37–45. Vishuddha: the human plane. Jnana (37), Human Plane (41), Ignorance (44), and Right Knowledge (45). For the first time knowledge and its absence stand side by side, and the level's question is: what do I actually know about my situation, and what am I assuming?

Sixth row, 46–54. Ajna: discernment. This level is traditionally associated with the "third eye". Discernment (46), Plane of Neutrality (47), Plane of Violence (52), Plane of Spiritual Devotion (54). On this level, according to the game's texts, a player stops dividing events into good and bad.

Seventh row, 55–63. Sahasrara: inner discernment. Selfishness (55), Positive Intellect (60), Negative Intellect (61), Happiness (62), Tamas (63). Judgement here turns inward rather than toward the world. The highest square in the row, Tamas, is also the most dangerous: a snake runs from it back down.

Eighth row, 64–72. Beyond the chakras. Phenomenal Plane (64), Plane of Bliss (66), Cosmic Consciousness (68), Plane of the Absolute (69), and the three gunas (70–72). This is not an eighth chakra but a level that sits outside their system.

How arrows and snakes connect the levels

The most interesting part of the board is not the rows but the transitions between them. A few examples from the game's texts:

The arrow from square 27, Selfless Service, carries a player from the third level straight to the fifth, the human plane. The logic is clear: dropping the calculation of "what do I get from this" leaps over a whole level of fighting for your own.

The arrow from square 54, Spiritual Devotion, leads from the sixth level directly to Cosmic Consciousness. The texts call it the only direct path there.

The snake from square 12, Envy, returns a player from the second level to the first. Envy is described as the reaction that rolls a player back to the basic problems of insecurity.

The snake from square 63, Tamas, drops a player from the top of the seventh level back into illusion. This is arguably the board's central lesson: a high level offers no protection against a fall.

The practical meaning is simple. A snake is not a punishment but a pointer to the mechanism that returns you backwards. An arrow is not a reward but a pointer to a support. More on reading moves like these is in the section on how to read the square you landed on.

Why the game starts and ends on 68

Your piece stands off the board on square 68, Cosmic Consciousness, which is the eighth and highest level. After entering on a six it drops to square 6, Delusion, in the first row.

So the game is not a climb from bottom to top but a circle: you begin beside the goal, descend to the very base, and travel the whole way back. The aim of a game is to return to where the piece started. The order of play is on the page about the rules of Leela.

Using the levels in your own game

The levels are useful as a map rather than as a scale of success.

Notice where your piece spends most of its time. If a game about work keeps returning you to the first row, the question is probably less about career than about the fear of losing stability. If you are stuck on the third level, look at how you handle your own power and the people around you.

Do not treat the lower levels as "bad". The first row is not a failure but a foundation, and many honest answers are found exactly there. A player in a hurry to reach the top usually skips the thing they came for.

What this scheme is and is not

The correspondence between rows and chakras belongs to the tradition the game comes from. Chakras are a concept from Indian spiritual practice, not a medical or anatomical fact. Using the scheme as a description of how the body or the mind works is incorrect.

For a player it works as a symbolic language: it gives you vocabulary for naming the level your question is playing out on. You do not need to share an Indian worldview to notice that a game keeps returning you to the theme of insecurity.

More on what the game is and is not is in the article is Leela worth it.

In short

The Leela board is 8 rows of 9 squares. In the tradition the first seven rows correspond to the seven chakras and the eighth lies beyond them. The levels run from survival and insecurity at the bottom to inner discernment at the top.

The richest part of the board is its transitions: arrows leap across levels, snakes return you down, and a fall is possible even from the very top. For a player, the levels work as a map rather than a scale: they show which level your question really lives on.