420 entries
Torans are chosen by the purpose and work of the place: flower torans for a king-like life and respect, stone torans for palaces, forts and soldiers, a special toran for treasuries and finance work, and gem (ratna) torans for the home temple.
A trapezoidal plot is judged by the corner its slanting side extends. An extended North-East makes it very wealthy, while extensions toward the South-East or South-West, or widening from the West or North, bring fear, losses, depression or instability.
Peepal, banyan, tamarind and pakad must never stand inside the house premises, and date palm, pomegranate, banana and ber also harm the household. A tree whose shadow falls on the house beyond the first and last prahar of the day causes trouble.
A triangle is the fire element's shape; a main gate built as a triangle for an owner of the water element turned a large factory into an NPA.
A triangular plot creates great trouble: name and fame are lost, enemies and court cases multiply and every task is delayed. Its intensity is reduced by building in a square form within it and by cooling its three fiery corners.
Tulsi senses negative energy entering the home and drives it away, and the air rising from it cleans the whole house, so every home must have one, especially in the North-East and the brahmasthan.
A kundli shows rashis only as numbers 1 to 12 in its houses, so learn the rashis in sequence with their lords: Mars rules 1 and 8, Venus 2 and 7, Mercury 3 and 6, Moon 4, Sun 5, Jupiter 9 and 12, Saturn 10 and 11.
There are 32 door positions, chosen with the help of the nine planets and twelve rashis, and the right one depends on whether the building is a home or a particular industry. Doors are studied as the boundary wall door, the main door, the main chamber door and the combination door.
In small homes of 700 to 800 sq ft, plots of 70 to 80 gaj and flats under 1000 sq ft, direction and element rules are not applied; instead the sizes of rooms, beds, tables and kitchen platforms are set by aay (mathematical Vastu) to generate the needed element.
Vedic vastu says no more than two or three kinds of wood should be used in one house, while plywood is made from 7 to 15 kinds of thorny woods glued together with adhesives.
In the 81 pad grid the exact cardinal points fall on the fifth pad of each side: North on Soma (N5), East on Surya (E5), South on Yama (S5) and West on Varun (W5). In the 64 pad temple grid they fall between the fourth and fifth padas, so using it for a house shifts every door position.
When the main door of the building and the boundary wall gate stand face to face in one line, the arrangement is utsang (sammukh) dwar, the best door coordination in any direction.
A house with two doors on N4 and E4, common in many homes, is a vardhaman house; it brings prosperity, happiness, peace and growth of sons and grandsons.
Jyotish can only tell whether a coming period will be good or bad, while Vastu supplies the energy of the sun and planets. By orienting and balancing a house to capture the energy of the nine planets, the afflictions shown in a horoscope (nav graha peeda) can be removed.
The biggest pooja, havan and sthapana of the 45 devtas should be done at garbh vinyas or shilanyas, while the devtas are on open ground and can receive their samagri at their own pads; the building is then raised over them.
In a house where any living being is killed or eaten, vastu never works. The teacher selects no place for wine, bars or meat and consults only after the family gives up meat and alcohol.
The energy of a place acts on whoever lives or works on it. Transferring a property's registry to someone else's name does not remove its Vastu defect, and tenants are affected as much as owners.
In Vedic vastu the five elements arose one from another in a fixed order: Space, then Air, Fire, Water and Earth, after which the cycle returns to Space. This order, described in the Shiv Puran, is the base for knowing which element creates or destroys another.
Space creates air, air creates fire by friction, cooling fire creates water, water over ages becomes earth (sedimentary rock), and earth returns to space; interior vastu follows this Vedic cycle, not the feng shui cycle.
Land is also named by which side is raised and which is low-lying (veethi). Go, Gaj, Dhan and Pitamah veethi are favourable, while Jal, Yam, Naag and Vaishvanar veethi, and a low-lying centre, are harmful.
Energy rising from the land (geopathic) meets energy from the planets and stars (cosmic) and forms a third energy that can turn intense or toxic when mixed with household activity, so it must be able to leave the house. Every room therefore needs ventilation.
Houses used to have ventilators high on the walls to balance the air element; bringing them down as windows has led to more arguments at home, even from ten-year-old children. Doors, windows and cross-ventilation are a must.
The South-East belongs to Venus. Its interior uses pink and light green, amethyst or blue sapphire, a pyramid and a sword for fire, kitchen-garden sceneries, fine curtains, decoration, toys and shining items, and Venus plants.
Sunlight falls first on the walls and the wall colour reflects energy onto the people, so colours of the element opposite to the owner's rashi or kundli can ruin an otherwise good vastu.
The North to North-East location of the water element means water sources such as borings, wells and tanks are made below ground level there, not as overhead tanks. Roof-top water should also drain towards the water element direction.
The water element is wavy or moon-shaped, white, located from North to North-East, liquid by nature and ruled by the Moon and Venus. Borings, wells, underground tanks, basins and other water sources represent it; balanced it brings joy, peace, confidence and wealth, imbalanced it brings irritation, disease and loss of money.
The water element is shown by a silver or white half moon, its colour is white, its zone runs from North to North-East and its metal is silver; water bodies and mirrors represent it.
The West, 45 degrees beyond the South-West, is ruled by Varun, the lord of water, with Saturn (Shani) as planet and neelam (blue sapphire) as stone. It builds the future and gives prosperity and wealth, and its power is felt after sunset, growing as the night advances.
In the West, W4 (Pushpadant) showers wealth and W5 (Varun) also gives wealth, while W1, W2, W3, W6, W7 and W8 bring short life, overspending, loss of money, government trouble, disease and a destructive mind.
West is pure and sacred: goddesses live here, it is Shani's place, and Varun devta, the wealthiest devta, resides here with Pushpadant, so it is the zone of gain and profit. It suits bedrooms, tijori, temple and overhead tank, but must never be dug, dirtied or kept low.