Also known asplot selectionbhoomi chayanchoosing land
Shakun shastra (nimitta gyan) reads the signs met on the way to a property; certain sights and events on the journey warn that the plot or flat is not good. They arise because the land's energy is already acting on the visitor's body chemistry.
A chart cast for the moment someone asks about buying a plot, flat or land shows whether it is good: a fixed lagna, benefics in the kendras and a strong 4th house favour it, while malefics in the kendras warn against it.
When someone asks whether to buy a land, flat or house, the side on which they stand relative to the expert's active nostril and the manner in which they ask reveal whether the land is good. A trained swar expert can read the land this way even from far away.
What one first sees and hears on stepping onto a land or into a flat indicates its energy: black items, broken things, snake holes and harsh sounds are bad signs, while a conch, aarti or auspicious songs, a rainbow or a joyful sky are good ones.
Clothes that tear, get a hole, or get soiled with mud, dung or dirty water on the way to or at a land signal that the land is not good; the position of a tear shows how bad it is.
Signs met while leaving home to see a land or building, such as body reactions, itching, dreams and sights on the road, foretell the energy and future of that property before you even reach it.
The word Vastu comes from the Sanskrit vas, the land of residence, so the condition of the land is judged before any direction. Land energy decides about 70 percent of the result.
A factory built on a river front was washed away by floods twice before a Vastu check showed that the site itself was wrong; a factory should never be built on a river front.
Factory sites beside rivers
A building to the North that is only a little taller than yours does no harm, but one more than about four to five feet taller causes trouble. A taller building or a raised hill has no effect if it stands at a distance of at least double your building's height.
Buildings or hills to the North of the property
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.
Dead ends, last plots of a colony, T-junctions
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.
Surroundings of the plot
Living where a high-tension electric line passes has given very bad results; residents mostly end up with cancer or migraine.
Plots near or under high-tension power lines
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
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.
Plots that were used as brick kilns
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.
Plots adjoining a temple
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 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)
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
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.
Whole plot
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 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.
Whole plot
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)
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.
Houses near a temple
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.
Whole plot
The swar a land brings on decides its best use: land that activates the Chandra (left) nadi suits homes, temples, schools and finance work, while land that activates the Surya (right) nadi suits business and industry. Land on which both nadis run is the worst of all.
When selecting a plot, flat or industrial land, the energy of the land itself decides about 70 percent of the result, more than slope, shape or surrounding structures. A building made fully as per directional vastu can still fail on land with bad energy.
Land heavy with metallic or black minerals carries more energy than most people can bear, so areas rich in surface minerals stay poor and troubled; minerals lying deep underground or bound with silicates are far less harmful.
Soil colour has long been linked to the work a land suits: red soil for the Kshatriya (hard-working people), yellow for the Brahmin, black for the Shudra and white for the Vaishya. Today a whole town often shares one soil type due to its geology, so colour is read together with texture, smell and taste.
If the land energy is good, a building can still succeed despite mistakes in orientation; if the orientation is 100 percent correct but the land energy is zero, no effort brings results. Land energy is read best by your own soul and subconscious mind, not by equipment alone.
Land (geopathic) energy, which is the earth element, carries 70 percent of the result of a building, while orientation and zoning carry 30 percent. A site with zero land energy fails however good its orientation and interiors are.
If your building is 16 feet high, a northern building up to 1 to 2 feet taller is acceptable, but one 4 to 5 feet or more taller, such as 20 feet, causes much harm. Distance removes the effect: a taller building or raised hill standing at least double your building's height away has no effect, so a 70-foot building is not affected by a building of double height 150 feet away.
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.
No. With a road in between there is no defect.
It is bad. Where metallic minerals, and especially black ones such as coal, are plentiful, negative forces settle: mineral-rich Bihar and Jharkhand and diamond-bearing Panna district are not prosperous, because few people can bear such strong energy, just as a 400 carat neelam or 20 paracetamol harms instead of helping. Minerals at the surface act on the house directly, while metals bound with silicates or lying deep underground, as at the Kolar Gold Fields, are not as harmful.
There is no criterion for finding the centre; the centre is always the centre. The proportion matters for the plot itself: up to 1:1.5 is good (30 x 45 feet is ideal), up to 1:2 (30 x 60) is neither good nor bad, and longer than that is not good, with more loss the longer it gets. In such long plots many devtas fall outside or get cut, and they need treatment.
An L-shaped plot is inauspicious in the first place. There is no special formula for its ratio; estimate it from its arms. The cut portion is a full loss, and how harmful it is depends on which corner is cut, which is best judged with the teacher case by case.