Questions and Answers

Do not think of it as a lamp burning for 24 hours in the Agneya (South-East). Use a small diya and place it in the Ishaan (North-East), because the devtas seated in the Ishaan, such as Shikhi, help a great deal.

Fix a fresh auspicious muhurta for shilanyas, dissolve (khandit) the earlier one, and perform it again in the new muhurta. It is dissolved the way an installed kalash is removed: by addressing the devtas who supported the earlier shilanyas with a request about it.

A pad is one of the equal sections into which a plot is divided. For 81 pad vastu a house, for example 90 by 90 ft, is divided into 9 by 9 equal sections and each section is one pad; the larger grids, such as the 1000 pad grid, divide the plot into many more equal sections. Some areas such as the Brahmasthan cover several padas together even if the drawing does not show their inner divisions.

Exact North falls on Soma (N5), with Bhallat at N4. The North zone is made of half of Bhallat (5.625 degrees), the full Soma (11.25 degrees) and half of Bhujang (5.625 degrees); North falling between Bhallat and Soma belongs to the 64 pad grid. The North-East zone is half of Diti (5.625 degrees), the full Shikhi (11.25 degrees) and half of Parjanya (5.625 degrees).

No. In 81 pad vastu exact East falls on E5 (Surya); East between E4 and E5 belongs to the 64 pad grid, so correct it. The reference is in Vishwakarma Prakash, with the page number given in the previous class; the Hindi translation from Sanskrit by Krishna Kumar Jugnu of Udaipur and the edition of Maharshi Abhay Katyayan give the same.

The colour on the chakra is the colour of the devta of that zone, not of the element; the North devtas are shown in red, for example, which is not a colour to paint there. The air element has both green and blue as its colours.

If the N1 pad is available, place them in N1.

Every pad grid divides the plot into equal sections, for example 81 equal sections for the 81 pad grid; the number of padas each devta occupies is then assigned within that grid. Drawing the devtas by hand will be taught practically in the 81 pad class.

Colours are taught in interior vastu; do not get confused now and focus on what is being taught.

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.

No special software is needed. Draw the chakra and devta lines once in AutoCAD as short reference lines; for every new map just align them and join the lines, which takes about a minute.

Yes. Devta marking is done in a flat exactly as usual, also to judge the main door location. What does not apply is the rule of leaving the Pishach bhoomi empty: inside a flat the corners and side spaces can be used.

Yes, they fall outside the building in that open margin, and that is exactly the logic of keeping the Pishach bhoomi open. If the devtas were marked on the built part alone, you would again ask for its Pishach bhoomi to be left empty, which is wrong. Things placed on the walls of the built house fall in the Manushya bhoomi.

Mark it the usual way: find the centre and north, place the chakra on the centre and mark the devtas. To divide the bands, take every corner of the shape, draw lines from the centre to each, apply the ratios and join the points; a similar shape forms inside. The more irregular the shape, the more complicated the work, and software makes it easier.

54 degrees. Each 90 degree quarter of the middle band has 10 equal boxes of 9 degrees, and Vivasvan covers 6 of them, so 6 x 9 = 54. The two side devtas take 2 boxes each, 18 degrees.

In the Pishach bhoomi, the outermost band. The 32 outer devta lines are drawn only within the Pishach bhoomi, while the 12 inner devtas sit in the combined Manushya and Dev band and Brahma in the centre.

No. A farmer who sows a seed does not end his bond with it there: he protects, waters and nurtures it until it flowers, fruits and grows into a shady tree, even a kalpavriksha (wish-fulfilling tree). In the same way, Indian architecture holds that a structure of stone and lime is not lifeless; prana settles into the building and its soil and controls the feelings of the people who live there, so the devtas established in the land must keep being nurtured.

In the Matsya Purana account, a drop of sweat fell from Shiva during his battle with the demon Andhaka and a great being (mahabhoot) arose, so hungry that it could devour the three worlds. On Brahma's order the devtas and asuras pinned it face down and 45 devtas sat on its body. Brahma granted that it would be remembered and given food and water whenever anyone occupies land, and that if it was not fed it could open its third eye and create havoc; he accepted it as his manas putra (mind-born son). The 45 places where the devtas sat became the 45 pads, each with its own function, like the separate work of the eyes, ears, nose and hands; medical science too speaks of 45 departments of the body.

As the sun rises in the East and crosses the sky, and the moon adds its influence, the rays reach each part of the land at particular angles (1 degree, 5.625 degrees, 11.25 degrees) and keep changing the composition and chemistry of each spot. The sun, the moon, the 27 nakshatras and the 9 planets project their energies at particular angles of inclination and transform the soil, which is why the same land has given crops for thousands of years. Every particle has its own energy and chemistry that cannot be destroyed, only transformed; people who trusted religion more than science named these energies devtas.

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.

Both the 81-pada and the 64-pada grids carry the 45 devtas. The 81-pada vastu is used for homes and business premises, while the 64-pada vastu is used for temples, villages, royal palaces (raj mandir) and towns, including a town gate. This course teaches the 45 devtas on the 81-pada grid.

Students answered griha pravesh and bhoomi poojan, which is only partly right: the greatest effect comes at the garbh vinyas or shilanyas, the day the land is taken over and the foundation is laid. Then the pishach, manushya, dev and brahma bhoomi are marked, the vastu pooja is done and every devta, 32 in the pishach bhoomi and the rest inside, is worshipped at its own place with its samagri, following the vidhi. A child cannot be born without a seed in the womb, and food works only through the mouth, not the ear or nose, so the biggest pooja, havan and sthapana belong to that day; building over the devtas afterwards is like tethering a cow first and then building its shed. Done later, remedies bring back only about 35% of that role, though even 5% is a lot.

On the ground. That is why they should be established at the shilanyas itself, and their bhog samagri is offered on the ground at each devta's own place.

Every place, down to a tiny particle, has its own chemistry created by the sun, the moon and the planets, and work done in line with that chemistry goes very well, just as a chemistry formula needs its ingredients in a fixed ratio. Land is the biggest source of energy, whether it is called a devta or energy; activating the devta of a particular location and using it for its own type of work brings success in education, spirituality, business, politics and every other field. Energy works only when it is taken in, as dry fruits kept at home give energy only when eaten, so the devtas have to be activated.

In today's 81-pada vastu the manushya and dev bhoomi are combined, so only three divisions remain: the pishach bhoomi with the 32 outer devtas, the combined manushya-dev bhoomi with 12 devtas, and the brahma bhoomi with Brahma. After dividing the plan with the 0.33, 0.55 and 0.77 multipliers, erase the middle line between manushya and dev bhoomi, since it is not needed for placing the devtas.