How are male and female bricks identified, and why does it matter?
When struck, one brick gives a khan sound and the other a jhan sound: one is male and the other female, like plus and minus. Bricks and stones laid by joining male with female hold each other and never let go, which is why buildings 2,000 years old still stand as they are.
Related questions
Is it right to use bricks stamped with a swastik?
No. The swastik and Om are the most sacred symbols, and a swastik generates about 10 lakh bovis of energy; when such bricks end up in toilets and floors, people walk and relieve themselves on it, and the same amount of negative energy is generated in the house, harming all work. In one case a family built a whole house of swastik bricks, and within three months of griha pravesh three members died in an accident and another later died of a heart attack. Recommend plain burnt clay bricks (fly ash bricks are not good either); where swastik bricks are already laid, spray gomutra (cow urine) on them before plastering.
Which bricks should not be used in construction?
Fly ash bricks, the grey, cement-coloured bricks made from ash, which are now widely used, for example throughout a large medical college project of about 1000 flats. They create a large Vastu defect, because Vastu lies in the material as well as in the direction.
If only part of a plot is to be built, where are the devtas marked?
If construction covers only part of the plot with space left all around, the 45 devtas are allocated on the whole plot and their places are selected on it.
In small houses three corners are closed by walls anyway. Does that count as covering the corners?
No. Walls enclosing a house are normal; covering means burying a corner under a huge mass, such as a boulder fill 35 to 40 ft long or a thousand bricks stacked permanently in one corner. Energy moves through all four corners, so keep them free of such heavy masses whatever the direction.
Why did builders in earlier times leave the plinth for one season after the garbh vinyas?
After the digging and the garbh vinyas, the plinth beam was raised and then left for one season, about three months. The secret was to let the sun, the moon, the 27 nakshatras and the 9 planets fully work on the land whose devtas had been worshipped, so that the soil became charged and energised before building went on.
Why did old buildings joined with lime last for thousands of years?
Their mortar was lime (chuna) made by burning limestone, which formed hydrated calcium carbonate and captured the full energy, so many such buildings still stand after thousands of years. Cement replaced it, but its life is only about 75 years and no manufacturer guarantees it beyond 100 years. Lime also absorbs negativity, which is why whole houses were once whitewashed with it.