Questions and Answers
775 questions
In a house with uneven levels, how can we tell whether the South-West is low-lying?
Check with a water level (spirit level) or a contour map, or simply pour a bucket of water on the floor: the direction in which it flows is the direction of the slope.
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.
Do we need to bring an idol of the Vastu devta for the Vastu pooja?
No. Keep the samagri simple and do the pooja from the heart; any pooja is an offering of feelings, and what matters is the bhav offered, not whether paan or gud could be offered.
What happens to a temple that has a big river flowing to its South?
Most people answer that it would fail, but Raj Vallabh says such a temple becomes not just a tirth but a mahatirth, because for a temple water is the element of peace. Nemawar and Siddhavarkoot near Omkareshwar, with rivers to their South, are among the most powerful places.
Why is the North called the direction of wealth and of Kuber?
Because among the four Vedas the North represents the Atharvaveda, linked with artha (wealth), and its lord is Kuber, the controller of wealth, career and opportunity.
Why should a toilet, dirt or extra height never be placed in the North-East?
Because the North-East belongs to Jupiter (Guru), the greatest planet, and to its lord Isha. A toilet, dirt or height there blocks Guru's grace, and spoiling the North-East spoils even a strong Jupiter in one's horoscope.
At a bhoomi poojan, why is the first tilak given to the mason rather than the pandit?
Because the feelings (bhav) of the builder enter the building. Honouring the mason, contractor or Vastu consultant with tilak, good clothes and a coconut makes him work with joy, while a hurt craftsman's tears in the mortar bring repeated sorrow to the house.
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.
What exactly is a cut, and how is a slope made?
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.
What is a plinth beam?
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.
In a house with a cut South-West, the plinth beam also follows the cut. Is it counted as cut?
Yes. If the beam and the foundation are cut, the plot is considered cut. What a cut is will be explained further with a model.
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.
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.
My plot measures 32 by 31, so one side is shorter. Is a corner cut?
If the shortfall is on the South-West side, the South-West is cut. Simply build on an exact 31 x 31 square.
If a square foundation is laid inside a triangular plot and the house is built on it, can it give good results?
Yes, it can. The methods for converting any irregular shape into a regular one are taught in the treatment classes.
There is a temple in front of my house with a road in between. Is there a defect?
No. With a road in between there is no defect.
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.