Squares are read aloud
You can listen to a square instead of reading it — your eyes are free, and the text lands differently, closer to a live facilitator.
An ancient game from India
Leela — the transformational game of self-knowledge
An ancient Indian game: 72 squares, a die and one question you enter with. The die chooses what to talk about — not what will happen to you. It is a conversation with yourself, not a prediction.
Free — under “Games and practices”
What Leela is
Leela ("play" in Sanskrit) comes from India, where it was used to hold a conversation about a person's life. The board is 72 squares, from "Birth" to "Cosmic consciousness". You roll a die, land on a square and work through its theme in relation to your own question.
Arrows lift you forward, snakes send you back — but a snake here is not a punishment. It returns you to the theme your present difficulty grows out of, so you can look at it at its source.
You can only reach the goal with an exact roll: overshoot and you continue around. That is the point — a goal is not reached approximately.
How to play
- 1
Think of a question
Not "what awaits me", but something you genuinely want to think about: "why is it hard for me to talk to my father". Hold it in mind and roll — a six means the game has accepted the question.
- 2
Roll and read
Every move brings a new square and its theme. Look at it through your question rather than on its own: how does this theme answer that question.
- 3
Write down what you saw
The important part of Leela happens in the journal, not on the board. Re-reading your notes a month later matters more than reaching the goal.
How our Leela is different
We did not copy the board into a phone one to one — some things are simply impossible on paper.
Your own die or ours
Roll a real die and mark what came up — or let the app roll for you. Whichever matters more to you.
A journal of the path
Every square is saved together with what you wrote about it. A game does not disappear; you can return to it a month later.
Three languages
All 72 squares are written in Russian, Kazakh and English — not machine translation, but its own text in each.
All 72 squares
From "Birth" to "Cosmic consciousness" — the path a player walks.
-
1 Birth -
2 Illusion -
3 Anger -
4 Greed -
5 Physical plane -
6 Delusion -
7 Vanity -
8 Dissatisfaction -
9 Sensual plane -
10 Cleansing -
11 Gandharvas -
12 Envy -
13 Emptiness -
14 Astral plane -
15 A world of fantasy -
16 Jealousy -
17 Compassion -
18 The plan of joy -
19 Action -
20 Giving -
21 Atonement -
22 Dharma -
23 Heavenly plan -
24 Bad company -
25 Good company -
26 Grief -
27 Service to the Higher -
28 Your dharma -
29 Lawlessness -
30 The right path -
31 The world of yakshas -
32 Balance -
33 The world of scents -
34 A world of tastes -
35 Purgatory -
36 Clarity -
37 Wisdom -
38 Prana -
39 Letting go -
40 Wholeness -
41 Self-awareness -
42 World of fire -
43 Human birth -
44 Ignorance -
45 True knowledge -
46 Discernment -
47 Neutrality -
48 Solar flow -
49 Moon current -
50 Austerity -
51 Earth -
52 Violence -
53 World of water -
54 Love-bhakti -
55 Ego -
56 The first sound -
57 World of air -
58 The world of radiance -
59 Reality -
60 Right discernment -
61 False distinction -
62 Happiness -
63 Instability -
64 The phenomenal world -
65 Inner space -
66 Bliss -
67 Dissolving concepts -
68 Cosmic consciousness -
69 The plan of the Absolute -
70 Goodness -
71 Passion -
72 Ignorance
What a card says is read inside the game itself: each has its own reading, questions to yourself and a voice that reads it aloud. Playing is free — in the iRitual app, under “Games and practices”.
Play in the appFrequently asked questions
Is Leela fortune telling?
No. The die chooses what to talk about, not what will happen to you. A square sets a theme to think about, and the conclusions are yours.
How long does a game take?
From half an hour to several weeks. You do not have to finish in one sitting: your piece stays where it is and you can come back any time.
Do I need a facilitator?
In classic Leela a facilitator asks questions about each square. Here those questions are written for every square, so you can play alone.
Does the game cost anything?
No, Leela in the iRitual app is free.
Walk the whole path
The game itself — with the die, the journal and the spoken cards — lives in the app, under “Games and practices”. Free, for iOS and Android.