58 entries
Modern practice measures from North at 0 degrees: East at 90, South at 180, West at 270 and North again at 360. Halving gives the corner directions at 45, 135, 225 and 315 degrees, and halving again gives sub-directions such as North-North-East at 22.5 degrees.
At the shilanyas or bhoomi poojan of any house or factory the first tilak goes to the mason (shilpi), contractor or Vastu consultant, not the pandit, and they are given the best clothes and a shriphal (coconut). Their goodwill enters the building, while a craftsman's tears of hurt in the mortar act like a buried bone (shalya dosh).
The plot is divided into Brahma, Dev, Manushya and Pishach bhoomi by measuring the line from the centre to every corner and marking 0.333, 0.555 and 0.777 of its length. Joining the matching points gives four bands that follow the real shape of the plot.
Full nadi shodhan is not done during pregnancy; only a limited practice in Chandra swar is used to heal the child, calling the shaktis one by one and sending them to the baby.
Pendulums are metallic (copper, silver, steel, brass) or non-metallic (quartz and its variety amethyst); a genuine, heavy pendulum is cleaned in salt water, purified with fragrant dhoop and given the intention to work with you before any use.
Stones and crystals used in Vastu are first cleaned with sea salt, then charged, energised with a mantra and given a command.
A bhatti (furnace) that has been in the ground of a house should be closed only after digging out and throwing away the soil all around it.
Energised yellow mustard is thrown towards each direction in turn while chanting the dig vandana mantra, or with a command and Om, to clear the negative energy coming from every side. It is done daily for a shop that is not running and before any work on unknown land.
For 32 zoning each pad is 11.25 degrees, with N5 centred on the exact north (0 degrees). Start 5.62 degrees on either side of north and mark every 11.25 degrees, or mark the black lines of the zoning chakra.
A quick manual method to divide any plan into the concentric bhoomis of the 81-pada grid by multiplying the centre-to-corner distance by 0.33, 0.55 and 0.77.
Once north is marked, a map of any shape is divided into 16 zones of 22.5 degrees by starting 11.25 degrees on either side of the north line. It takes about two minutes on regular and irregular maps alike.
Multiply the door length by its width and divide by 8; the remainder is the aay of the door, which decides which direction that size suits.
A beginner trains with a pendulum by asking questions whose answers can be checked, such as the name of the person in front or where a coin is hidden, until the answers come out right every time.
The map-compass app shared in class shows a satellite map with two red axis lines. After locating the building and rotating the lines parallel to its walls, the degree shown at the top is the building's degree.
Google Earth on a laptop or PC gives the most accurate degree: open the client's location, confirm the building, draw a straight ruler line along one wall and read its heading. That heading shows how far the building is turned from North.
Without software, the centre (nabhi) of an irregular plot or flat is found as the centre of gravity of a cut-out of its shape: hang it from two different points, mark the vertical line each time, and the lines cross at the centre.
The centre of a regular plot is where its two diagonals cross. For an irregular plot, use the geometric centre in AutoCAD, CorelDraw or an image editing tool, or the manual method of hanging a paper cut-out of the plan from a pin.
When nothing is built on or around a plot yet, ask the engineer to draw the surrounding roads on the plan, straighten the road in the map and take the road's degree. Alternatively, take the degree of a parallel neighbouring building, ask the engineer which line the house will follow, or visit the site.
In earlier times, when someone at home fell ill, people put ghee and a little rice on a cow dung cake (kanda); this was a method of activating the vastu devtas.
Bhog must be served to each devta at its own pad, in a dona made of leaves or on a paan leaf, with a request to accept it, just as food is served to a guest. Items merely lying in the house are not an offering.
Stairs carry three currents linked with ida, pingala and sushumna, named Indra, Yama and Raj; count the steps in that repeating order so the last step falls on Indra or Raj, never on Yama.
At griha pravesh, the earthen kalash brought from the temple and carried in through the door is set on wheat in the North-East corner of the kitchen; the wheat sprouts from the kalash's moisture and shows the energy of the new home.
For an auspicious journey or an important meeting, leave the house and first move the vehicle clockwise, even if the road later turns the other way.
A dowsing L-rod is made of solid copper about 8 to 10 mm thick, with a short handle bent at one end; ideally it is cast on Guru Pushya or Ravi Pushya yoga with a little gold and silver, and it must be cleaned after every use.
Engineers planning colonies, factories and large sites often draw the plan already turned to true North, so the plot looks tilted on paper while North is exactly at the top. Check it against Google Earth; if it matches with North up, zone it at zero degrees without rotating the chakra.
Place a protractor on the house plan aligned to North, adjusting for any tilt, and mark the 4 directions, the 4 sub-directions at 45 degrees and 8 further sub-directions at 22.5 degrees. For a house use the 81-pad layout, in which the 32 outer devtas each cover 11.25 degrees and N5, E5, S5 and W5 fall exactly on the cardinal points.
On a real plot of any shape, the ati marma are marked by finding where the twelve devtas of the six ati marma lines meet the plot boundary and joining those points. With the zoning chakra this takes one to two minutes and needs no computer.
Find the centre, draw a reference line, set off the measured tilt to get exact North, then mark 22.5-degree zones starting 11.25 degrees on either side of North, using the Geo Vastu chakra or an ordinary protractor.
After zoning, mark the 32 outer padas of 11.25 degrees each: Soma (N5) is centred on exact North, extending 5.625 degrees on each side, and the remaining padas follow every 11.25 degrees.
After the bhoomi rings are drawn, the outer ring is cut into 32 pads of 11.25 degrees each, starting with Som devta centred on North, and the middle ring into 12 inner pads with an 18-54-18 degree split for each direction.