Direction Lords, Land Selection by Surroundings, Slope Types and Plot Shapes
The class completes the direction lords from the South-East to the North-West, with their planets, stones, gifts and the effects of defects, and gives the Geo Vastu definitions of vastu. It sets out the Geo Vastu division of results, in which land energy carries 70 percent, and then lists the surroundings that make a plot unfit: tall buildings or mountains in the North or East, rivers in the South-West, temples, temple shadows, banks, dead ends, cremation grounds, police stations, hospitals, brick kilns, thorny trees and high-tension lines. The slope section explains why land must fall toward the North-East and classifies land by slope pattern and by its raised and low sides (prishth bhoomi and veethi). Finally it defines a plot's shape by its foundation and covers square, rectangular, triangular, circular, pentagonal, hexagonal, trapezoidal, gaumukhi and shermukhi plots and extended or cut corners, followed by a long doubt session.
After strong negative entities (bhoot-pret) are removed from a place, it is sealed with a protective grid of solid mercury keels (nails) in the four directions and four corners, so the removed energy cannot return. In severe cases 12 or 16 points are sealed and mercury pyramids and mercury swastiks are added.
Four directions and four corners of the property, along the boundary walls; 12 or 16 points in severe cases
When a corner is cut and there is no space to build on it, the foundation (bunyaad) is joined underground to complete the regular shape. The current then flows in the full shape, so the cut above ground causes no defect.
In a building whose East-West axis is longer, place the deity (prabhu) in the exact West so that it faces East. When the deity looks to the East, the direction corrects itself.
Exact West of the building, with the deity facing East
When the neighbouring house in the East is taller than yours, you lose the energy of the sun. Either add a storey or raise a metal flag of brass in the South-West of your roof, higher than the neighbour's building, so that your building starts receiving cosmic energy.
A house with its entry in the South-East (Agni kon), an underground water tank in the South-East and the floor sloping to the South suffers constant quarrels. Close the South-East underground tank at once and correct the slope; the staircase above it can stay.
South-East underground water tank and the floor slope of the house
The acharyas advise placing diamond in the ground of the South-East to increase its power. Where the floor is already built, as in a flat, a swastik drawn with inexpensive diamond chip powder in the South-East serves the same purpose.
Land where babool, thorny, poisonous or milky-sap trees dominate, where snake anthills (baambi) abound, or where insects and red ants swarm moving anti-clockwise, has poor energy and should not be used for living.
On every vastu visit, prepare a slope map of the property, like the contour map made before any civil work. After the gate, slope carries the most marks, and correcting the slope of a room alone removes about 50 to 60 percent of its defects.
Whole property, each room, office chamber and bedroom
Vastu is the name for bringing the energy that pervades the universe to its correct direction and its real location. It is also defined as awakening one's own fortune (bhagya) through the energy of the land, and, for the North-West, as the unobstructed coming and going of air.
The South-East, 45 degrees beyond the East, is ruled by Agni, the hidden fire energy present in every living being. Its planet is Venus (Shukra) and it gives fame and cash flow, so the South-East of a householder's home must never be cut.
The South belongs to Yama, the god of justice and messenger of death, who rides a buffalo and holds a danda (rod). Its planet is Mars (Mangal) and its stone is moonga (coral); it is the zone of complete relaxation and sleep and rules the world of departed ancestors.
The South-West is ruled by Nairitya, with Rahu-Ketu as its planets and gomed (hessonite) as its stone. Balanced, uncut and right-angled, it gives prosperity, stability and skill, and it must be the highest part of the property in both ground level and building height, which is why a dhwaj (flag) is raised there.
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.
The North-West is ruled by Vayu (air), without which no life lasts more than two minutes. Its planet is the Moon and its stone is moti (pearl); it is the world's greatest messenger and gives travel and servants (helpers).
In the Geo Vastu system, the results of a property come 70 percent from land energy (the earth element), 20 percent from orientation and the main door, 5 percent from the interior and 5 percent from vastu protection. Land energy must therefore be checked first, because good orientation on weak land gives no result.
A tall building close to the North or East of a plot blocks its energy: in the North it causes money problems and in the East loss of name and fame. A tall building on the back side, in the South, South-West or West, gives strong progress.
North and East of the plot (harmful); South, South-West and West (helpful)
A plot or house squeezed between two tall buildings on opposite sides, even South and North, gets neither balanced magnetic and gravitational force nor sun rays. Such a house wrecks every effort and should not be bought even if it is offered free.
Plots with tall buildings on two opposite sides (180 degrees apart)
A mountain in the North or East of a site ruins everything, and land at the foot of a hill (talhati) should never be used for a house. Such land is to be refused even if it comes free.
Mountains or hills in the North or East; land at the toe of a hill
A permanently flowing river, channel or nala in the South, West or South-West of a property is very harmful, and even a seasonal one is wrong. A swimming pool or a very large underground tank in the South-West of a building is equally bad.
South, West and South-West of the plot or building
A plot touching a temple wall on the deity's left side, or behind the deity's back, should not be taken even free, for a home or a business. The deity's right side is good if the walls do not touch, and the front is good only beyond double the distance.
The shadow of a temple's shikhar or dhwaj must never fall on a house during the second and third pahar, 9 am to 3 pm. It ruins the household, whatever the temple: Jain, Vaishnav, Ram, Brahma, Mahadev or Durga.
Living above a bank is acceptable, but a flat whose toilet lies directly above the bank's safe or locker room, where the money is kept, ruins its residents financially.
Flats above a bank; the toilet position relative to the bank safe or locker
Never select a plot at a dead end, such as the last house of a colony, town or lane, especially when high boundary walls close it in, and never select one on a T-junction.
Land near a cremation ground (marghat), crowded gathering places (jamghat), gambling or satta dens, a dhobi ghat, a liquor shop, a police station or a large hospital should not be taken even free. The energy of such places enters the body with the breath and changes health, emotions and behaviour.
Where a brick kiln has run for a long time, the chemistry of the soil is destroyed and its elements turn to ash. Such land should not be taken for any project even free; treatments exist for those who already own it.
The earth is tilted 23.4 degrees toward the North-East. When a plot, plan and floor are sloped the same way, with the North-East kept lowest, the land falls in line with nature and absorbs the full energy, which collects most in the North-East.
Land is classed by its slope pattern. Kurma prishth (tortoise-back) land, raised in the middle and sloping on all sides, is the best for business and temples; Gaj, Daitya and Naag prishth slopes are unfavourable, and Daitya and Naag land destroy business.
A slope toward the North-East is best for homes, temples and schools, while business premises do best with a slope toward the North or North-North-East, then the North-East. Slopes toward the South, South-East, South-West, West and North-West each bring specific harm.
When the whole slope of a plot or roof drains into the centre, or a well, water tank or septic tank is built in the Brahmasthan, the result is sarvanash (total ruin). Projects with a central well always carry some trouble they cannot rise above.
Brahmasthan (centre) of the plot, building or roof
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.
A dug well in a wrong zone, such as the South-West, must not simply be filled up suddenly; it is closed through a proper method (vidhi), the vastu registry of a dug well. Closing it carelessly can increase the trouble.
The shape of a building is the shape in which its plinth beam and foundation (neev, bunyaad) are laid in the ground, because the underground geopathic current runs in that shape. Balconies and chhajjas projecting above do not change the shape.
When a plot has its boundary wall on all sides and the North-East is left open as a porch or parking, the plot is not cut. The North-East is meant to stay open to the sky, with less construction.
Each floor is judged from its own base: the ground floor from its foundation and an upper floor from the floor it stands on. The centre of every floor follows its own carpet area, and a smaller upper floor does not make the plot cut.
Every floor of a building; boundary gate and main door
A square plot with equal length and width is the best of all. In a rectangle, a longer North-South axis makes a Chandra bhedi plot that suits homes, while a longer East-West axis suits temples but brings some unrest to a home.
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.
A circular plot is bad for homes and business but the best for temples and auspicious for a parliament. A pentagonal plot should never be bought, while a hexagonal plot with equal sides is never bad and suits temples, certain businesses and schools.
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.
A corner extended from both its sides gives strong results: an extended North-East makes residents healthy, wealthy and religious, while extended South-East, South-West and North-West corners bring disputes, illness, business collapse, mental illness and forced migration.
A plot with its North-East cut is the worst of all, and a cut South-East is also very bad. A cut North-West brings mental anguish, disputes, loss of mental balance and constant quarrels.
A gaumukhi (cow-faced) plot is narrow at the road and wide at the back, and a shermukhi (lion-faced, nahar mukhi) plot is wide at the road. Either is good only when its North-East is not cut, and a shermukhi plot gives results only when its North-East is extended.
Whole plot relative to the road
Questions asked in this session
When living beside a temple, are left and right judged from the deity's facing or from the house?
From the deity. Imagine the deity seated facing out: do not live on the deity's own left side, while the deity's right side is very good. On either side your wall must not touch the temple wall; if you leave a gap and build your own separate wall there is no negative effect, though the right side still gives the better results. Many people living on the left, touching the temple wall, have been ruined.
Is a nahar mukhi (lion-faced) plot auspicious if it extends toward the South so that its South-East grows?
No. A South-East or South-West extension is not auspicious, because a plot needs its North-East extended. Even in an East-facing gaumukhi plot with a narrow front where the South-East is a right angle, the North-East gets cut, so it is not auspicious. A nahar mukhi plot gives results only when its North-East is extended.
A rectangular plot is built up on three sides and open only on the West, so its energy is low. How can it be extended?
Do not extend it. Instead, place energy-giving items and capture the energy from all four sides to raise the energy level; this is covered in the energy chapter.
A cut is part of a direction missing from the plot's shape, just as a person can be missing an ear; if that part of the North-East is absent, the North-East is cut. Slope is simply the way water runs when it is poured. It forms with the construction, and where it is wrong it is corrected by raising the part that is too low.
It is the structure built below road level when a house is first dug out: the foundation, also called neev, bunyaad or daasa. The plot's shape is read from it.
Some people slope the roof into the Brahmasthan and take the water down through a central pipe. Does that affect the house?
Yes, it is wrong. Even if the floors slope to the North-East, a roof whose whole slope falls into the Brahmasthan creates the same defect as a slope toward the centre.
What should students get for learning to find directions and degrees?
Buy a liquid-filled compass from a stationery shop or online; it makes it easy to set zero degree and read degrees. Also download Google Earth on a laptop or computer and install a compass app on the mobile, which works only on Android phones, not on iPhones. Geo Vastu does not sell a compass of its own.
Some people deliberately build the house with the North-East extended. Does that increase the energy?
Yes. Extending the North-East of the land from the foundation enlarges the place of its devta, who is pleased just as a person is with a bigger room, and it does not bring a South-East negative. But what truly counts as an extended North-East is taught later, because many people extend it the wrong way, for example from the East toward the North-East, and harm themselves.
Our rented house had the South and West very low and the North and East high; my husband's work stopped and loans piled up. Our present house also slopes to the South with water collecting there. What can be done?
Such slopes explain the trouble. How to correct the slope fully, or partly when a full correction is not possible, is taught in the treatment classes. Slope plays a very big role: maintaining the slope alone removes about 50 percent of zone defects.
Our parking area is in the North-East of the plot. Does that make the North-East cut?
Not at all. A plot with its boundary on all sides and the North-East left open as parking or a porch is not cut; the North-East is meant to stay open to the sky with less construction. A consultant who calls it cut lacks even nursery-level vastu knowledge. In one Indore case, a family who believed this left a prosperous house that only had a porch in the North-East and then suffered in two costlier houses.
On the first floor, a room or toilet is built out over the chhajja. Does it count in the shape?
Each floor is judged from its own base: a ground floor from its foundation, a first floor from the floor it stands on. Construction built out over chhajjas becomes part of that floor, and the centre of every floor changes with its own carpet area. If one family uses all the floors, the ground floor shape is the full shape, and a smaller upper floor, such as 25 x 25 over a 50 x 50 ground floor, does not make the plot cut.
What is the effect of a deep pit or a large pond to the South of a temple?
It harms the temple. It is not a direct problem for the person who had the temple built, but the shilpi (temple architect) who builds vastu defects into a temple also has to bear their ill effects.
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.
For a plot of, say, 33 x 70 that is not fully built, do we take the whole plot or only the constructed part?
Take the constructed area. For the boundary wall gate the centre of the whole plot is used, and for the main door the centre of the constructed area; this is taught in planning.
My neighbour's house in the East has two storeys and mine has one. What is the effect?
You are losing, because the East (the sun) gives all the energy. Either build a second storey or put up a flag: a metal flag of brass in the South-West of your roof, higher than their building, so that your building starts receiving cosmic energy.
My bedroom is in the South and its floor also slopes to the South. What should I do?
That is wrong; correct the slope first, because slope matters most. More important than treatments such as changing the sleeping zone is maintaining the slope of the room, which alone removes about 60 percent of the dosh.
A house has its entry in the Agni kon (South-East), an underground water tank in the South-East with the stairs over it, and the slope running to the South. The family fights constantly. What is the remedy?
Either leave the house or treat it: close the South-East underground water tank immediately and correct the slope. The staircase can stay. An overhead tank in the South-East is acceptable.
In swar vigyan, which element runs the longest in every hour, and how does that relate to land energy?
The earth element (prithvi tatva) has the longest share, 20 of every 60 minutes among the five tatvas of a swar. In the same way, the earth element of the land, its land energy, carries 70 percent of the result in vastu.
At what time does the West direction show its greatest energy?
After sunset. Its power is felt from sandhya kaal onward and increases as the night advances, which is why people do sadhana at night and worship Lakshmi at night for wealth.
How is the shape of a plot or building determined?
From the foundation: the outline of the foundation and plinth beam of the outermost walls, joining all the corners into a square, rectangle or other form. The geopathic current under the ground runs in that shape, so projections above ground do not change it, while an irregular foundation stays irregular even if right angles are built above it.
If the plinth is a perfect right angle but balconies and projections stick out on the upper floors, is the shape irregular?
No, it is regular. Balconies are like the hair on a head; spreading hair does not change the shape of the body. The shape is the one in which the plinth beam and foundation were laid, because the underground current runs in that form.