Deepak (Diya or Lamp)

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.

It is a lazy, dormant land where the energy is disturbed and the fire element has fallen to zero, since sleep comes with coolness. Perform a havan with samagri, light a cow ghee akhand jyot in the South-East for eight days, and burn dhoop daily with Bhimseni kapoor on the lamp's upper plate; within eight days everyone starts waking up.

Three tests. Offer nine aahuti of half a spoon of desi cow ghee with half a spoon of rice over burning Bhimseni kapoor: if the ghee fragrance spreads through the whole house up to the pishach bhoomi, the devta is active. A ghee diya at the spot that burns longer than the same ghee lasts elsewhere also shows activation. Sow wheat in soil in a leaf dona, as in Navratri: jaware about 11 inches long in seven days mean full activation, about 7 inches mean moderate, and then the activation methods should be done.

A bedroom at Parjanya was never forbidden; it gives peace and deep sleep. What does not suit it is going there only for pleasure. When a couple goes there with the intention of having a child, following the method of establishing a kalash and keeping a diya, and conceives there, they give birth to the best child.

Use pure coconut oil of the kind that solidifies when it is even slightly cold, like the edible coconut oil used in the South. If that is not available, a blended brand such as Parachute can be used if it burns properly.

Removing the bone is not enough; the land needs its rites, just as a house is purified after a death. Do a vastu registry with five coconuts (four corners and the bone spot), remove the affected soil, do agni sanskar with mango wood, ghee and camphor in 16 places and float the ash in flowing water, purify with water and mantra, sprinkle gomutra and plaster with cow dung, put lime and sulphur in the pit, keep a lamp burning there for 24 hours, and mix a little mercury into the soil and the four corners. If the shilanyas had already been done, it is broken and must be redone after purification.

Yes, dig vandana with yellow mustard helps. The biggest brahmastra for labour problems is a mustard oil lamp lit in the South-East (Agni kon), because Saturn rules labour and mustard oil belongs to Saturn; a black lamp is even better.

Sagun is a swar vigyan technique that is learnt fully only in the complete swar training; in brief, the lamp is lit while holding the breath. A lamp lit in sagun burns far longer: a 100 g ghee lamp lit on Dussehra burned for 10 to 12 days and a 10 g lamp has burned for 27 days, so a desi cow ghee lamp in the South-East of the kitchen needs only 25 to 50 g of ghee a day. A conch blown in sagun while holding a wish drives all negative energy out of the house.

Yes, it has to be the fire-element triangle, drawn as a straight (sidha) triangle, not an inverted (ulta) one.

Yes. The North-West lies on the same axis as the South-East, diagonally opposite at 180 degrees, so the lamp can be lit there too.

Yes, an akhand deep (continuously burning lamp) can be lit in a South-East room too. Agni Dev is pleased wherever an akhand deep burns and gives a great deal in return. It is not right, however, if women sleep in that room during their period of impurity (menstruation).

The small niches were made for lamps; they are the eyes of the door, and lamps placed in them open its eyes. The jharokhas beside them are the ears. Lamps must be lit in the niches on festivals such as Diwali, Dussehra, Holi and Raksha Bandhan, and in royal houses they were lit daily; a house whose eyes stay open keeps a right watch over everyone. If a door, even one in a wrong place, is decorated like this with small desi cow ghee lamps in the niches, its defects do not apply.