Discovering Leela: The Ancient Game of Self-Knowledge

Today I want to talk to you about something unusual.

What if I told you there is a game that can show you exactly what you need to see right now and where life may be asking you to go?

It can be surprisingly precise,

Deeply healing and at times almost magical.

It is a game that reflects your inner world,

Reveals what is blocking you,

Helps you understand your true desires and shows you what steps may help you bring them to life.

The Lila Game Lila is not just another transformation game or just another practice.

It is an ancient self-knowledge boarding game born in the Himalayas,

One that has touched people for centuries and still does today.

Over the last few years I have facilitated many Lila sessions and seen how deeply it can transform people's lives.

And I truly believe it could change yours too.

That is why today I want to show you what Lila is,

Why it is so much more than a game,

Why it has stayed alive for so long and why it can become such a powerful tool when you are searching for clarity,

Direction or simply a deeper connection with yourself.

Welcome back to Metamode,

A space for remembering who we are beneath the noise,

A space for healing,

Truth,

Beauty,

Purpose and a more loving way of living.

If you've been here for a while,

You probably know that my path into this work began through my own healing journey.

Many years ago,

Chronic Lyme disease changed my life completely.

It pushed me into a much deeper search,

Not only for physical healing,

But for a different way of understanding life.

That search led me into the world of self-discovery and inner work.

Slowly I realized that health and happiness come from returning to your own truth.

And somewhere along the way,

I found Lila.

And what surprised me is that Lila is exactly about that.

It is about reconnecting with what is true for you right now.

I can't even tell you how many times it gave me answers in the moments when I felt stuck,

Frustrated or lost.

It fascinated me again and again.

And over time,

It became such an important part of my life that I began using it in all of my healing retreats.

It always opens something much bigger than people expect.

There is still very little information about this practice,

Especially in a way that feels clear,

Alive and easy to connect with.

And that is one of the reasons I wanted to make this video.

Lila is still not very well known,

And yet it can be genuinely life-changing.

And at the end of this video,

We'll do a short demo version of Lila together,

So I can show you how it can offer guidance when you need a message,

A little clarity or a fresh perspective.

So stay with me.

Before we talk about the rules,

The board or the history of Lila,

Let's first look at what it is and what it is really for.

In Sanskrit,

Lila means game,

Or more exactly,

Divine play.

It points to the idea that life itself is a cosmic play where everything has meaning,

But not always with heaviness,

Not always with the kind of seriousness we humans tend to bring into everything.

And Lila is really about this,

Because if you think about it,

So much of what stops us in life is fear of change.

We are afraid to change jobs,

To leave or enter a relationship,

To move,

To choose differently,

To trust what we really feel.

And usually,

We carry all of that with so much tension,

Pressure and fear of making the wrong move.

That is where Lila becomes so powerful.

In the form of a game,

It gives you space to explore your life,

Your choices,

Your inner conflicts and your possible next steps in a completely different way.

Through the board,

You can begin to see the possible effect of your decisions or actions without having to throw yourself into real-life consequences first.

You make a move,

You see what happens,

You notice your reaction and very often,

You understand something immediately.

You see not only what the game is showing you,

But also how you really feel about it.

And that alone can reveal a lot.

For some people,

Lila feels like a form of therapy,

For others,

Like a spiritual practice Lila is disguised as a game,

But however you experience it,

It can release energy,

Shift your perspective and move you into a different level of awareness.

At its core,

Lila is a reflection of your life,

Your path,

Your inner world.

It brings you into a deep meeting with yourself.

It helps you hear your inner voice more clearly and reconnect with what you truly long for.

But why does it matter so much today?

Because you have probably already noticed that the old ways of moving through life no longer work in the same way.

For a long time,

Many of us were taught to rely mostly on logic,

Control and what looked right from the outside.

But now,

More and more people feel that this is no longer enough.

Something deeper is being asked of us.

We are being asked to listen more closely,

To become more honest,

To stop living only from the mind and start paying attention to what the heart is trying to say.

And yet,

We still carry so much from the old reality,

Inherited fears,

Beliefs and patterns that shaped not only our lives,

But also the lives of the generations before us.

That is why so many of us become disconnected from our truth.

We compare ourselves,

We look for approval outside of ourselves,

We follow rules that no longer feel true,

We get caught in stress,

Speed and pressure,

And after a while we no longer know whether what we want is really coming from the soul or only from the mind.

This is one of the reasons Lile is re-emerging now.

It helps you see what is holding you back,

Recognize inner contradictions and ask yourself honestly whether you are really living the life you want to live.

And if you have drifted away from your past,

It can help you find your way back.

It doesn't force answers on you,

But it shows you,

Often with surprising clarity,

What you need to see in that moment.

And when something begins to change inside you,

Your outer reality begins to respond as well.

Lile is ancient.

It was born centuries ago in the Himalayas,

Most likely in India.

Some even trace it back around 2,

000 years.

In the past,

Access to Lile was limited to temples,

Palaces and monasteries.

I have also heard that in India,

Some Brahmins still play Lile during sacred festivals like Mahashivaratri and Moksha Day Kadashi.

Over time,

Lile moved through different traditions and cultures,

And different versions of the word began to appear.

Some added squares,

Some removed them,

And some interpreted them in their own way.

Today,

More than 100 different Lile boards are preserved in museums and collections around the world,

Most of them from India,

Nepal and Tibet.

There is also an interesting connection here.

What many of us know today as snakes and ladders,

Or chutes and ladders,

Is believed to have grown out of this same family of ancient games.

But Lile is something much deeper than that.

It is not about winning or losing,

It is about seeing where you are,

What lifts you,

What pulls you down,

And what your life is trying to show you.

The version of Lile most people know today was brought back into wider awareness in 1975 by Harish Chokhari,

An Indian scholar deeply rooted in the Vedas,

Astrology,

Numerology and philosophy.

His book Lile,

The Game of Self-Knowledge became one of the most important modern references for this practice.

This work carries immense depth and very ancient wisdom,

But at the same time,

I also feel that for many people today,

Especially outside India,

It needs to be approached in a way that feels alive,

Clear and relevant to modern life.

My own training included both worlds.

One path was much closer to the traditional Hindu version,

And honestly,

It left me with a few questions.

It was fascinating,

But I didn't always know how to apply it to my own life,

And especially to the lives of people who are far from yoga,

The Vedas and spiritual traditions,

And are living in a more modern,

Material world.

The other path was adapted by my teacher,

Who had been exploring this game for at least 15 years,

And translating it into language and perspectives that are easier for people today to connect with.

I'm deeply grateful to him for that,

And that combination is very important to me.

I want to honour the original essence of Lile,

But also make it accessible,

Human and real,

Because only when it becomes accessible can it truly speak to people's lives and transform them.

At times,

The more classical approach can also feel demanding in the world we live in today.

And personally,

I feel we've already had enough guilt,

Enough stress,

Enough punishment.

What we need now is more compassion,

Tenderness and self-love.

That is why I don't facilitate Lile from sacrifice or from pressure,

But from permission.

Permission to feel.

Permission to desire.

Permission to heal.

Permission to receive.

And permission to remember that you're not broken,

You're simply finding your way back home.

So,

What do you need to play Lile?

To play Lile,

You need just three things.

A board,

A die and a small object that represents you in the game.

These can be physical or virtual,

Depending on how you choose to play.

I usually use a large board that I place on the floor and very often on a beautiful beach during retreats,

But I also have smaller versions and digital ones.

And once you understand the structure of Lile,

You could even draw a simple version yourself.

Now,

When you first look at the board,

One of the first things that catches your attention is the snakes and the arrows.

They immediately pull you in.

You can feel that something is happening there,

But we'll come back to them in a moment.

The board represents the evolution of human consciousness,

From the most basic levels to the most expanded ones.

In a way,

It is a little like Maslow's hierarchy of needs,

Moving from basic survival to self-actualization.

The board is arranged in eight horizontal rows,

And each level corresponds to a different level of consciousness.

And if you're familiar with chakras or energy centers in the body,

This will make even more sense.

Each level also carries the energy of a certain chakra,

From the root chakra all the way to the crown.

The final level goes even beyond that,

Into a space connected to the divine,

To something beyond the material world.

The board has 72 squares,

And each square represents a different state you may move through in life.

In every square,

You receive a message to reflect on.

Some of these states feel lighter,

Some feel more challenging.

You will see squares connected to states like anger,

Discontent,

Or emptiness.

But in Lila,

There are no good or bad squares.

There are simply different states that all of us pass through at different moments in life.

And then there are the snakes and the arrows.

Traditionally,

They are described as virtues and vices.

But what really matters is what they do in the game.

They move you through the journey.

Some energies lift you,

Others bring you down,

Some open the way.

Others show you where something is still unresolved.

That is why the snakes are not there to punish you.

And this is very important,

Because at first,

Many people are afraid of them.

But very often,

The snake is the part of the game that reveals the most.

When you land on a snake,

It can feel as if the game is speaking to you directly.

Almost like it is saying not this way,

Or not from this place,

Or not yet.

And sometimes the opposite happens.

An arrow appears and lifts you much faster than you expected.

And that too tells you something.

It shows you where your energy moves,

Where life opens,

Where something inside you is already ready.

This is one of the reasons Leela can feel so fascinating.

You are not just thinking or talking about your life,

You are watching it move.

Leela becomes a mirror of your life.

You begin to see patterns,

Reactions,

Blockages and possibilities play out right in front of you.

And one of the most curious things is that you may return to the same square,

The same snake or the same arrow more than once.

Sometimes because the message has not fully landed yet.

Sometimes because life really does bring us back to the same lesson until we are ready to see differently.

There is one snake I find especially interesting.

Its message is connected to the idea of postponed happiness.

The things we keep delaying,

The desires we keep putting off,

The life we keep telling ourselves we will live later.

This snake takes you down into discontent.

And that makes so much sense.

Because when we keep postponing what really matters to us,

When we keep leaving our happiness for later,

What often appears is frustration and emptiness.

And what is so striking is that people often get caught in this cycle for quite a while.

They fall down into discontent,

Roll the die,

Land again on the head of the snake,

Fall down again,

Roll again and return to the same place until suddenly something shifts inside.

It is not necessarily that they didn't understand the message before.

It is that this time they make a different inner choice.

And then the cycle breaks.

This is the kind of thing that makes Lila feel almost magical.

Because it mirrors life with such precision.

The structure of the board is fascinating too.

We won't go deeply into it now,

But it also carries layers of numerology.

The number 72 is sacred in many traditions.

And the way certain numbers are woven into the board is not random at all.

So even though at first it may look like a simple board game,

Its structure is actually very deep.

Lila is really a symbolic map of your inner world,

Your path and your life.

Now that you have a sense of the board,

Let's talk about how a Lila game actually begins and how you move through it.

The first thing you need is a question.

And this is very important,

Because in Lila the question is not just the formality.

It is the doorway into the game.

You can ask about almost anything.

Your purpose,

Love,

Money,

Work,

A decision you are struggling with,

A place where you feel blocked or a dream that keeps calling you.

There are no wrong questions.

But there is something that matters very much.

The question has to come from your heart,

Not from your mind.

What will not work is a question that only sounds good,

The one you think you should ask,

Or the one that feels more acceptable or more logical.

It has to be a question that actually carries energy,

The one your heart is truly asking,

The one your soul is ready to look at.

And this is why in Lila the game begins only when you roll a 6.

The 6 is not just a technical rule.

It is a gatekeeper.

It symbolizes your readiness to begin the journey.

In a way,

It is the moment when the game says Yes,

This is the question.

This is what matters right now.

This is where we begin.

Sometimes you roll a 6 right away,

And sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you sit for quite a while,

Rolling again and again,

Until suddenly realize that the question you came with is not really the one,

Not the one that truly matters.

And sometimes you simply need to get tired of going in circles before you can feel what is actually true.

Then you roll the die from that place,

And the 6 appears.

But even before it appears and the game really begins,

While you're still trying to feel what the right question is,

Lila is already asking.

What do you really want?

Is this desire truly yours?

Why do you want it?

In Lila you never enter with the wrong question.

The die always responds to what is important right now.

So once you roll the 6,

You enter the game.

You could say that in that moment you are born onto the board.

From there you begin moving through the squares.

You land in a square,

You receive a message,

And then you stay with it for a moment.

You reflect on it.

You feel what it brings up.

You look at what it is showing you.

Sometimes the message feels obvious.

Sometimes it catches you off guard.

And sometimes it puts you in touch with something you already feel deep down but had not fully allowed yourself to see.

And this is where Lila becomes so interesting.

Because you don't just move mechanically.

The die does not respond only to movement.

It responds to what is happening inside you.

To what you truly feel.

So before each new roll you need to respond to what the game is showing you.

You may need to express an intention,

Make a decision,

Draw a conclusion,

Or simply admit something to yourself honestly.

And the die responds to that honesty right away.

Many people try to outsmart it at first.

They say what sounds right,

They choose what seems logical,

Or stay close to what feels safe.

But Lila has a very direct way of showing you when something is not fully true yet.

And just like in life,

When we are not honest with ourselves,

We tend to get stuck.

That is part of what makes Lila so alive.

It is important to remember that in Lila there are no winners or losers.

Each person moves through the game in their own rhythm.

And what matters most is what the journey reveals to you.

Lila shows you exactly what you need to see right now.

So as you move through the game it is not just about advancing across the board.

Little by little you return to your truth.

And begin to feel what is finally ready to shift.

Gradually it stops feeling like you are just playing.

It starts feeling like you are in a dialogue with the universe and with the spiritual guides who accompany you.

Do you have to complete the game?

This is actually a very interesting question.

According to the traditional sources one of the most important rules of Lila is that once you begin you are meant to complete it.

The idea is that if the game is still unfolding there are still messages to receive,

Lessons to understand and something more for you to see.

So when you enter the game in a way you are saying yes to a journey and you need to be ready to stay with it until the end.

And if you follow that logic a game can last a very long time.

Sometimes many hours.

8,

10,

Sometimes even 12.

For a long time I facilitated Lila in that way too.

Making sure that every participant completed the game.

But over the years after guiding many people through this practice I began to see that reality is a little more nuanced.

Lila is such a deep process that sometimes even without reaching the final square a person can already receive something extremely valuable.

A single square a snake,

An arrow or one repeated pattern can already bring enough clarity to shift something important in real life.

And sometimes after a few moves or a few hours you have already seen what you needed to see.

The message is there the understanding is there but maybe,

Very honestly you also feel that you are not yet ready for the full transformation or for the action that would come with it.

And very often continuing to play can even become another way of postponing that action.

Some people consciously or unconsciously don't want to leave the game because leaving the game would mean that something now has to change in real life so they prefer to stay inside the process a little longer.

And because of this I began to notice that sometimes giving the game a time frame can make it more focused more dynamic and in some cases even more effective.

That said,

Completing the game has a very beautiful logic.

There is real value in going all the way to the end.

Reaching the final square can be a very powerful experience and we'll talk about that in a moment.

So today my feeling is this.

Whenever possible I try to make sure everyone completes the game but to avoid physical and mental exhaustion what I often do now is weave it into longer retreats where we begin on the first day and let the game unfold all the way through to the last day together with other practices and experiences.

But in the end we live in a world of free will and the wisest thing is always to trust your intuition and feel whether it is time to continue or whether the message you needed from Leela has already been received.

At some point in Leela if the journey continues you reach square 68 cosmic consciousness.

This is where the game ends.

Yes,

You heard that right.

Leela has 72 squares but the game ends on square 68 and reaching the square is much more than simply receiving an answer to your question.

Very often by the time you reach the end the answer is much bigger than the original question because as the game unfolds other questions appear other layers open and the whole process begins to go far beyond what you originally came to ask.

For many people it is the most beautiful moment of the whole experience.

By the time you get there you are no longer in the same place you were when you entered the game.

You have already moved through different states different messages different realizations you have seen parts of yourself more clearly you have probably resisted some of them too and by then something in you has already shifted so arriving at the square is not just about finishing it is more like coming to a place where the meaning of the whole journey suddenly becomes clear and yet it is never exactly the same for everyone for some people it is deeply emotional,

Almost like a powerful reconnection with themselves for others it feels expansive,

Quiet almost surreal some laugh,

Some cry and sometimes in the moment itself nothing dramatic seems to happen at all but then,

A few days later they realize that something inside them is simply not the same anymore what changes most is the place from which you are looking at your life something becomes clear wider you feel more connected to your truth to your genuine desires and to what your next step is and because of that your real life begins to move differently too that is why the end of the game is not really the end once the board is gone the real movement begins the insights keep unfolding,

The truth you touched stays with you the decisions you made inside yourself begin asking to be lived outside the game and this is part of the magic of Leela what happens on the board does not stay on the board it starts moving through your life at this point you may already have a few questions one of the most common ones is whether Leela can predict the future and the answer is no not in a simple fortune telling way Leela does not tell you exactly what will happen and when but it does allow something very unusual it lets you explore within the board the symbolic consequences of your choices for example,

You may arrive at a moment in the game when you are thinking about a real change in your life changing jobs moving somewhere else leaving a relationship or beginning something new you hold that intention you roll the die and the game responds so in that sense Leela does not predict the future like a rigid fixed event but it can show you the energy behind a decision and sometimes the deeper outcome,

Your intention may be leading toward that is part of what makes Leela so fascinating it is not about outside predictions,

It is a direct and honest dialogue with your soul where the answers do not come from outside but from your own inner connection another question people often ask is whether it is possible to play alone and yes,

Of course it is if you know the structure of the board and the meaning of the squares you can play by yourself but playing with a facilitator is a very different experience,

Because all of us have blind spots there are things we do not see,

Places where we get stuck,

Patterns we normalize,

Truths we avoid,

A facilitator is not there to tell you what to do,

But to help you see more clearly what the game is showing you,

And to go deeper into the process and if the game is played in a group the shared energy adds something unique it is never random who meets in a session there is always something to learn through the others sometimes another person's words may resonate deeply with you,

Or their experience suddenly brings clarity in Lila everything is connected but no matter how you choose to play Lila will show you what you need to see right now because in the deepest sense the ones guiding the process are always your spiritual guards and then there is the question of privacy Lila can be a very intimate experience it can bring up deep emotions private questions old wounds and truths that people may never have spoken out loud before that is why confidentiality matters so much what happens in the game should stay in the game whether it is an individual session or a group,

The space needs to feel safe,

Respectful and free from judgement at the same time no one is ever forced to share more than they want to you can speak openly keep parts of your process inside or even play in complete silence what matters most is honesty with yourself because that is what the die responds to now let's try the short Lila experience I promised you of course this is not the same as a full Lila game where the whole process unfolds step by step and the messages appear along the way but I still want to give you a little taste of how Lila can speak I made these cards myself for moments when you need quick guidance there are 72 cards and each one corresponds to a square on the Lila board as you can see each one carries its own message I'm going to pull 3 cards,

Each one connected to a different Lila square you can choose right now simply by number 1,

2 or 3 or you can wait until I fold the cards and you can see all 3 of them and if you do that,

Just notice which one feels right which one seems to be for you while I mix the cards,

Think of something you would like to know right now a situation where you feel stuck or simply ask for a sign from the universe from your guides or from whatever feels true for you so let's begin by the way,

I'm going to use this little coral this stone which might be a coral too and this seashell so that it's easier for you to choose so this is going to be our card number 1 this is going to be our card number 2 and this will be our card number 3 so these are our 3 cards 1,

2 and 3 take a deep breath and let your intuition choose now let's see the messages so this is our card number 1 it corresponds to square number 10 and the name of this square is purification here is the message clear the clutter from your life continually learn to distinguish what is not yours this may include toxic people family patterns that do not bring you happiness unhealthy foods and habits for some it involves changing their environment for others it is about ceasing to play the victim and for others it is about abstaining from consuming too much media this arrow invites you to free yourself from anything that does not support your journey it is an arrow that lifts you to confidence interesting right?

This is our card number 2 this card corresponds to square number 71 and it's called energy of motion this is the energy that drives everything in your life this square suggests adjusting the course of this vital energy the force behind all your actions in which specific area of your life do you now need to channel your energy your time,

Your attention sometimes to redirect the energy towards a new path you might need to reallocate it from somewhere else this is our card number 3 this card corresponds to square number 39 and it's called letting go embracing the art of letting go is crucial it is important to allow what is leaving your life to find its way out this square invites you not to cling to the past to release what is no longer of interest and what no longer contributes to your growth this can encompass people or systems you have outgrown to move ahead you must be ready to lift your foot from where it currently stands I hope the card you chose gave you something to reflect on these are the kind of messages you can expect from Lila the difference is that when you play a full game all the messages are connected and they respond immediately to what you feel think and choose thank you for being here with me today I hope this gave you a clear sense of what Lila is and why it can be such a powerful mirror when you are searching for direction or a deeper connection with yourself and if there is one thing I'd love you to take from this video is this you don't have to force all the answers sometimes what you need most is a space that helps you reconnect with what you already know deep down Lila can be that kind of space and maybe that is exactly why it has remained with us for so long because even now it still has a way of bringing us back to our truth and showing us what matters most