Jnana Sopanam (ज्ञानसोपानम्) - Buddhi Yoga (बुद्धियोगम्)

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Snakes and Ladders was a board game that possibly originated in India. The game can be found in various versions with various names across India. Vaikuntha Pali, Mokshapatam, Parampadam Sopaanam, Kailash Pheri, Ninyaanbe ka Pher, Karmaphal Pheri, Jnana Baazi, Jnana Chaupar, Leela are some of the names that are popularly associated to some ancient versions of this game. However, there are Jain versions, Buddhist Versions, Sufi versions, Persian versions and many other contextual adaptations of this game as well.

What I realised is that each one of the games encodes a particular belief, lifestyle, philosophy and social context within it. If we attempt to document the hidden nuances of these games, we can possibly associate them to a society that believed in this philosophy and tried to propagate it.

There must have been an ancient version of the snakes and ladders board game which reflected the beliefs of Vedic times. As social systems changed, the game evolved by accepting the changing beliefs and traditions of the "newer societies". The Jain, the Sufi, the Buddhists and Islam, all accepted the beautiful design of the board game, but changed it's content and structure to suit their context. The British also adopted the game and re-designed it as a game of morals and ethics. Their colonies adopted this new version of snakes and ladders as well, and thus was India's age old "mokshapatam", "vaikuntha pali", "jnana chaupar" and "karma pher" got renamed as snakes and ladders that we play today.

Taking this thought further, we have re-created a very ancient version of the सर्प - सोपानं game that existed in ancient India. This was a 72 cell game board with some interesting words inscribed within each cell. Some seemed to be moral and karmic, while others were more difficult to understand. However, since there were multiple games designs under the name Jnana Chaupar, we decided to call this particular version Buddhi Yoga. This version is very similar to other versions like Leela, however, the contents of some of the cells are different and the way the snakes have been configured is also different.

Buddhi Yoga (Samskrit : बुद्धियोगम्) refers to the Yoga of Understanding, as explained by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

तेषां सततयुक्तानां भजतां प्रीतिपूर्वकम् | ददामि बुद्धियोगं तं येन मामुपयान्ति ते || (Bhag. Gita. 10.10)

Meaning : To these who are thus in a constant union with Me, and adore Me with an intense delight of love, I give the Yoga of understanding by which they come to Me. Sri Aurobindo (Bhag. Gita. 10.10)

Thus does Sri Krishna suggest the "Yoga of understanding", Buddhi Yoga to his disciples. This design encodes our knowledge of the three main paths to moksha (मोक्षः); tantra (तन्त्रम्) or jnana (ज्ञानम्), karma (कर्म) and bhakti (भक्तिः). The snake in last cell suggests that the game was played differently than the "race to win" game that we know today. The rules of play as mentioned by Harish Johari in Leela and first hand encounters with some learned people in Varanasi helped in formulating the rules of play for Buddhi Yoga.

The path of moksha is for those who have been born. They who have been born are essentially an aspect of Prakriti, the "para-shakti" or the feminine energy. They are of the tri-guna nature, ie. they comprise of the satta, raja and tamas aspects. This suggests that all the players playing this game (we humans) are essentially feminine. Therefore, when discussing the game, the player is assumed to be of the female gender.

Fundamental principles of the philosophy of Tantra.

Tantra (तन्त्रम्) or Jnana Marga (ज्ञानमार्गः)

Tantra, in the Indian context means a system, a technique, an instrument, a practice. The practices are detailed in our scriptures called Agamas (आगमः). In the Tantra (तान्त्रः) philosophy, our thoughts, matter, everything we perceive through our five senses, our nervous system with it’s electrical pulses (नाडी) are all a part of the dance of the cosmic energies, the Shiva and the Shakti.

The fundamental concepts of this "system" are beautifully encoded within the game board. The eight siddhis (सिद्धि), the nine shaktis (नवदुर्गा) or forms of the devi, the 72000 nadis(नाडी) and the kundalini (कुण्डलिनी) are fundamental to the design of the game board. The game board itself is like a "weave" of rows and columns (warp and weft). As the player moves her marker over the game board she almost simulates the actual shuttle that moves between the threads, landing on some and skipping others she weaves her own unique pattern, her signature maybe, on the game board.

Etymologically tantra refers to expanding beyond the material realm. Practitioners of Tantra aim to finally attain moksha through practicing the highest vidya (विद्या).

Game Board

The words on the game board are also beautifully arranged to embed within them the foundations of the path of knowledge, and inspire the player to inquire and "insplore" (search within).

For example, the cells of jnana and suvidya are on opposite ends of the first row of vanaprastha. While suvidya takes the player directly to rudraloka the abode of Shiva, jnana takes the player to anandaloka revealing to him the sat-chit-ananda nature of the brahman. Just above suvidya is viveka. This arrangement reminds the player of the belief in the kaula tradition that there are two paths to knowledge, that of jnana which is gained through shabda and that of viveka which is gained through insight from within. There are many such interesting patterns on the board game which the curious player can explore.

Karma Marga ()

The path of unselfish action is the karma marg to moksha. We act in the context of our social role. There are four stages (आश्रम) in our life; the student (ब्रह्मचर्याश्रम), the householder (गृहस्थाश्रम), the retired (वानप्रस्थाश्रम) and the renunciate (सन्यास). These stages are represented by two rows each on the game board in the above sequence. Thus the first two rows or eighteen cells represent the stage of the student, the next eighteen cells represent the stage of the householder and so on.

The number eighteen occurs recursively in the Mahabharat (महाभारत). The war lasted for eighteen days, there are eighteen chapters in the epic, the Bhag. Gita. contains eighteen chapters, eighteen armies fought the battle, eighteen warriors survived this war, and many more. The eight columns, nine rows, the six faces of the dice, also encode numerological significance relevant to karmayoga (कर्मयोग). Even the cell numbers and their contents seem to be beautifully related. For example maya (माया) is cell number 2 which represents duality, anger (क्रोध) is cell number 3 which is the number of fire, and so on.

The game board thus becomes a representation of the life and the experiences of the player. As she moves her counter on the game board, drawn towards the ladders and weary of the snakes, she experiences the ups and downs of life. This beautifully relates to her real life experiences and simulates her karmic path.

Game Board

The cells on the game board also embed ideologies, goals and guiding principles for the karmayogin (कर्मयोगिन). The cells of tapa (तप), harsha (हर्षः), karma (कर्म), parmartha (परमार्थ), and sudharma (स्वधर्म / सुधर्म) create a beautiful perimeter to the plane of action for the player. The world of karma is also a world of decisions, where one needs to choose between one or the other. The opposites of dharma(धर्म), adharma(अधर्म), susangati(सुसंगति), kusangati(कुसंगति), suvidya(सुविद्या), avidya(अविद्या) bring out this karmic dilemma. Adjacent cells, and cells six places away reveal aspects of the reference cell beautifully. For example, consider the cell daya(दया). The cells of dana(दान), maya(माया), dvesa (द्वेष), harsa (हर्ष), brahmaloka (ब्रह्मलोक), svarga(स्वर्ग) and gandharva(गन्धर्व) all relate with daya, and all contribute to the experience of daya in the player.

Such and many other secrets inspire the player to discover them and in-turn learn about the nuances of karmayoga in her life.