[Advaita-l] The 'Snake-and-ladder' game - The Spiritual path

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Thu Jul 26 10:09:41 EDT 2018


Copied and pasted from FB page of Ajay Khemka
<https://www.facebook.com/ajay.khemka.75?fref=mentions>

Unbelievable!!!
The 13th century poet saint Gyandev created a children's game called Moksha
Patam. The British (intentionally to break our rich culture & education
system) later named it Snakes and Ladders instead of the original Moksha
Patam.


In the original one hundred square game board, the 12th square was faith,
the 51st square was reliability, the 57th square was generosity, the 76th
square was knowledge, and the 78th square was asceticism. These were the
squares where the ladders were found and one could move ahead faster. The
41st square was for disobedience, the 44th square for arrogance, the 49th
square for vulgarity, the 52nd square for theft, the 58th square for lying,
the 62nd square for drunkenness, the 69th square for debt, the 84th square
for anger, the 92nd square for greed, the 95th square for pride, the 73rd
square for murder and the 99th square for lust. These were the squares
where the snake waited with its mouth open. The 100th square represented
Nirvana or Moksha.The tops of each ladder depict a God, or one of the
various heavens (kailasa, vaikuntha, brahmaloka) and so on. As the game
progressed various actions were supposed to take you up and down the board
as in life... Amazing, isn't it???!


https://www.facebook.com/subrahmanian.vaidyanathan/posts/2215995825080433


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