Questions and Answers
64 questions on Directions and Orientation
When you speak of the North and South poles, do you mean the directions, and which length should be longer?
Yes, they are the directions. The length of a place in the North-South direction should be longer than its East-West length; such a place is considered the best because it holds the strongest magnetic field.
How many main directions are there in Vastu?
Ten, not four: the four main directions, the four corner directions (vidisha), and the upward (urdhva) and downward (adho) directions. Each has its own dikpal, and energy reaches the rest from above and below.
In a house visited earlier an elephant was painted in the Ishaan, yet the elephant is said to be the vehicle of the East. Where does it belong?
The elephant is the vehicle of Indra, lord of the East. Between the East and the North-East lies a 45-degree span with several pads, among them a debt door and a door that makes one rich, and every 11.25 degrees the chemistry and circumstances change, so the exact pad matters.
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.
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.
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.
Why do we state the tilt from North?
By convention the whole world measures tilt from North, saying whether it turns toward East or West, and the compass itself points to North. You could count it from East if you prefer.
What does tilt mean?
Tilt means tedha or tirchha: how far the true North is turned from where it is assumed to be. People who do not know vastu simply say their house is North facing, but a careful degree reading may show that it is turned, say, 5 degrees.
My reading shows 216 degrees. What is the tilt?
Compare it with the nearest cardinal direction. South is at 180, so 216 minus 180 gives 36 degrees: the South has moved 36 degrees to the left. Do not measure it from West (270), which would give 54 degrees and shift the whole zoning.
Why does the degree I take at the centre differ from the degree in a room?
Because the degree must never be taken from the centre. A compass placed at the centre only shows roughly whether a room is in the North-East or North-West; the exact tilt comes only when the compass is parallel to a wall. In a regular house, readings taken parallel to the walls are the same everywhere.
How is the compass set up before reading it?
Simply line it up. The dial has a North-South line and an East-West line; turn it until one of them lies exactly straight with the mirror line and the axis line. The more precisely it is straight, the more accurate the reading; a crooked setting can read 20 or 30 degrees for the same house.
Do we need to know the facing of the house to take its degree?
No. The facing is the side of the main door, opening or road, and using it is only one easy way to read the degree. What matters is to find where North lies; once one direction is known, the rest follow at 90 degree steps.
If the heading shows 2.4 degrees, is North to the left or to the right?
To the left. The drawn line reads 2.4 and North is at 0, so North lies 2.4 degrees back toward the left.
When the tilt is 2.4 degrees, how do we place the chakra on paper?
Draw a straight line upward from the centre. With a Shakti chakra, which has degrees printed on it, place it so that 2 falls on that line; North then lies two marks behind automatically. With a plain protractor, place it at the centre, count 2 degrees back and mark that line as North.
My compass showed North tilted toward the North-East, and Google Earth showed 2.39 degrees. Is that also toward the North-East?
Not necessarily. A magnetic compass shows North directly, so its reading can be stated straight away, for example North 30 degrees toward East. Google Earth and the mobile app only show the heading of the line you draw, and North has to be worked out from it; a heading of 2.39 means North lies 2.39 degrees to the left.
How do we know that a tilted-looking map has been drawn to zero degrees North?
Open the location in Google Earth with North set at the top and compare. If the plan looks identical, it is drawn at zero degrees and is zoned without rotating the chakra; about 90 percent of such tilted maps are drawn that way. If in doubt, rotate the map until one straight side is straight and take the tilt from that side.
Is there a rule to draw the Google Earth line from left to right or from right to left?
There is no rule. Drawn the opposite way, the same line reads 180 degrees more, for example 208.9 instead of 28.9; subtracting 180 gives the same answer, so a line can never give a wrong result just because of the direction in which it was drawn.
A client's location shows coordinates. What do I do with them?
Copy them and paste them into the Google Earth search bar, which takes you to the place. Then draw a straight line along a wall of the building to get the degree. A degree taken from the centre is wrong; the centre only tells you which direction a room is in.
My compass is a different, liquid-filled type. Do I need to buy another one?
No. If it has a straight edge on its side, keep that edge parallel to a wall. A liquid compass that is set exactly gives the correct reading, and it may also show the water level.
How do we find the degree of a plot when neither it nor anything around it is built?
Ask the engineer who draws the basic plan to show the surrounding roads, straighten the road in your map and take the road's degree. You can also use any parallel neighbouring building, since parallel buildings always read the same, ask the engineer which line the house will follow, or visit the spot.
How are the small marks on the compass read?
Each small line is 2 degrees. If the needle falls three lines after North, the tilt is 6 degrees; five lines after North means 10 degrees.
Which method of finding the degree is the most accurate?
Google Earth gives the best accuracy. Use whichever method you understand well, the mobile app or Google Earth, and practise drawing the yellow ruler line: if it shows 28 degrees, North lies at 0 behind it and the chakra is turned 28 degrees to the left.
From where to where does the fire element zone extend?
The fire zone covers East-South-East (purvi agneya), South-East (agneya) and South-South-East (dakshini agneya).
If Google Earth shows 350 degrees, how should North be marked on the plan?
In a regular plot you can set the zero directly at 350 degrees when drawing the straight line. It is easier to think of it as a 10-degree tilt and set off 10 degrees, because that method works from whichever side of the plot you start.
Does zoning work differently for plots in hilly areas?
No. Zoning is done the same way everywhere; only the measured tilt differs, and it has to be taken for each site.