Questions and Answers
47 questions on Flat and High-rise Vastu
In a new flat handed over by the builder the toilet seat is already fitted but is not level. How can it be corrected?
Get the seat removed and refitted perfectly level, because health matters more than the cost. Many people found with kidney, heart and cancer problems, and especially stomach problems, had toilet seats that were not at water level. The main door too must be in plumb, leaning neither in nor out, and level where it stands.
In some apartments the main door is level but is built askew in the wall section. Is that acceptable?
No, such a door is not considered right, and the occupants usually face sudden obstacles in work or sudden health issues. Get the door made straight; treatments for cases where that cannot be done are taught later.
If a much taller building is built only 10 to 12 feet in front of a third-floor flat, how does it affect the flat?
If a proper distance is maintained there is no problem, but a building many times taller standing close in front, within roughly 25 to 50 feet, has a bad effect. This is why the lowest floors of a building are the cheapest and the upper floors the costliest. Remedies for this are taught later.
I have booked a flat in a building that has a river flowing in the South, across the road. Is that a defect?
No. When a road runs between the property and the source of a vedh, such as a river, the defect does not apply.
In Mumbai many buildings have a longer East-West axis. How is that energy balanced?
It can be balanced with methods taught later. A good immediate remedy is to place the deity in the exact West of the home so that it faces East; when the deity looks to the East, the direction corrects itself.
Of all the land energy testing methods, which one is the best?
All the methods are good, but no method in the world is greater than swar. Many methods cannot be used in a flat, while swar can check a flat, a land or anything else. Learn swar well, practise it and do nadi shodhan; then you may not even need to visit the plot, because someone standing there can phone you and you can tell from where you are.
People boil milk when entering a new flat; is there a science behind it?
Yes, it is nimitta gyan and not merely a custom of letting milk boil over for luck. If the milk heats fully and boils over without any sound, it is auspicious, a sign that the offering has been accepted. If it crackles or pops like ghee on heat, some ritual was left incomplete or some defect remains in the construction or the griha pravesh. The colour of the flame where milk or ghee falls, red, yellow or black, is also read.
In a house of three or four floors, should every floor be tested, or can it be checked while living there?
There are two energies: geopathic energy from within the earth, which gives growth, and cosmic energy from the air, which supports it. The ground energy reaches every floor, as a building rests on its foundation, so check the ground floor and basement energy first; the cosmic energy can differ from floor to floor with orientation, as was found in a 17-floor building. Basement energy matters most, just as fertiliser and water go into the soil, not onto the leaves.
How is zoning done for a flat?
Exactly as for any plot; flats, industries and every other building follow the same method. Finding the centre of a flat can be hard, so use AutoCAD or the paper method for irregular shapes. Only a temple differs, because it uses the 64 pad grid, where North falls between N4 and N5.
The air element of my rented flat is disturbed and I have severe gastric problems. What can I do?
Use green colour and a flag-like pattern: put up a flag (dhwaj) in the North-West and, if possible, open the North-West with a window; this brings at least some balance. Swar vigyan can do still more without expense or demolition.
Two flats were merged 10 to 12 years ago, the toilet and bath now fall at the centre, and the head of the family has stomach problems. Can the house be given two centres?
Either remove the toilet, which is rarely practical, or keep the two flats separate through kilan: four copper nails at the corners of one flat and four at the corners of the other. At griha pravesh a raksha sutra is tied around the house and nails are fixed at the four corners so that the current moves along them, and kilan divides the current the same way. Even on the third floor, simply drill and fix 1.5-inch copper nails.
Is it a dosh if the lift is to the side of my flat door rather than directly in front?
No. A lift creates dwar vedh only when it is exactly in front of the main door, where it obstructs luck and delays work. Its remedies are taught with the other remedies.
We live in a housing society and do not know where the boring or septic tank is. Will it still affect us?
Yes. Not knowing makes no difference: the sun gives its rays whether or not someone believes in it, and a person who knows nothing of vastu still gets its doshas. A wrongly placed tank, boring, septic tank or sewer line affects the residents whether they know about it or not.
In a flat no window has been made at the door. What can be done?
No problem. As taught in interior vastu, make one symbolically, and if that is not possible, make a figure (picture) of it.
In a flat, if the stairs are in the anti-clockwise direction of the house, is it a vedh?
It is a dosh, not a vedh. Stairs carry the geopathic currents from below up the building; a current moving clockwise grows while one moving anti-clockwise is lost, just as spinning clockwise and anti-clockwise feel very different.
Can a nandavart dwar be made in a flat?
Yes, it can be made in a flat too.
Are marma and ati marma applicable in flat vastu?
Yes. The ati marma of a flat should also be found and kept free, just as in a house or plot.
Does everything taught today also apply to an apartment or flat, or only to a kothi?
Everything taught today applies to flats as well, except bhoomi vibhajan. In a flat it is already done: the space left around the building during construction is its Pishach bhoomi. Ati marma, zoning and directions all apply inside the flat.
In a flat, if part of the shape is cut by the stairs or lift, how is that part treated?
The flat is the part you actually enter and use. Once inside, your movement and work happen only in that area, so the part you cannot access, taken by the stairs, lift or the neighbouring flat, is a cut in your flat.
If bhoomi vibhajan is not done in a flat, is devta marking still done, given that the 32 devtas lie in the Pishach bhoomi?
Yes. Devta marking is done in a flat exactly as usual, also to judge the main door location. What does not apply is the rule of leaving the Pishach bhoomi empty: inside a flat the corners and side spaces can be used.
How do we mark a flat whose South-West and North-East corners are cut?
Mark it the usual way: find the centre and north, place the chakra on the centre and mark the devtas. To divide the bands, take every corner of the shape, draw lines from the centre to each, apply the ratios and join the points; a similar shape forms inside. The more irregular the shape, the more complicated the work, and software makes it easier.
Is the hanging method an exact way to find the centre (nabhi) of an irregular plot or flat without software?
Yes. Pin the cut-out shape to a wall, mark the point exactly below the pin in a straight vertical line and draw that line; repeat from another point, and the crossing is the centre. It is plain science of the centre of mass, since the side with more area is heavier and hangs lower. Done accurately, it gives a 100% exact centre.
If Pishach bhoomi is not considered in a flat, why draw it at all?
Bhoomi vibhajan is not drawn for a flat, and a flat has no Pishach bhoomi dosh, because the building already has open space left on all sides. So whatever you keep inside the flat does not create that dosh.
In a flat, the wall that divides the hall falls on an ati marma; what can be done?
A wall on an ati marma is wrong, but when it belongs to another room it usually cannot be removed. Remedies such as the nine herbs mentioned in class give some results, and the full remedies are taught in the remedy classes.
If furniture made by carpenters is placed on a devta's pad, does it affect the devta?
All 45 devta places cannot be left empty, or there would be nowhere to live or keep things in a house or flat. The Vedic texts say to protect the ashtamansh (one-eighth part of the pad); wooden items kept on any devta's place, even on a marma, are not counted as a dosh, because wood does not sink in water but floats. Besides, the devta's place lies beneath us, and the devta is basically a particular energy.