Also known asidolganesh idolstatuepratima
Nothing valuable or sacred should sit on the pishach bhoomi: never a tijori, court case or other important papers, a child's study table, a bed set directly against the wall, or a deity and home temple. Leaving even a 2 to 3 inch gap from the wall keeps an item off the pishach band.
The band along the walls of every zone, including the North-East
Every direction and every artifact represents an element, so an artifact, picture or scenery should sit with its friend element. Placed beside an enemy element it causes unrest at home and losses in business.
Any home, factory, shop or office where artifacts, pictures or sceneries are placed
With sunrise the sun brings its full energy into the East, filling flowers and fruits with sweetness. The East is the zone of social contact, used to build sweetness in relationships, and its perfect magnetic balance is why the face of the deity is kept towards the East.
East zone; deity facing East; fruit trees in the East
The North-West is the Moon's location; a big TV (Mars) placed there with a black horse statue on top formed a destructive Angarak yoga with Rahu, bringing accidents, fire and deaths.
North-West corner
Paintings, carvings, idols, elevations and domes are made to change the mind (chitt) through images (chitra); temple interiors and exteriors were designed to balance elements, planets and forces and even to influence the devtas.
Interior walls, elevations and exteriors
A lion represents the Sun; if the owner's Sun is debilitated, lion statues at the main door or in the house bring ruin instead of power.
Main door and inside the house
Statues whose hands or legs are cut or broken should not be kept at home, otherwise accidents happen in that house, because images directly influence the mind (chitra se chitt).
Anywhere in the home
If Venus (Shukra) and the Moon (Chandra) sit together in a kundli there is domestic discord, and keeping their colours, statues or artefacts together at home increases it further.
Anywhere in the home, especially where artefacts are grouped
The elephant represents Rahu, so elephant statues or hanging-elephant bandhanwar (toran) do not suit every home, especially where the family's Rahu is debilitated.
Doors, walls and any place where toran or statues are hung
When a flat or house cannot be altered, interior vastu balances the disturbed element by placing that element's shapes, symbols, artifacts, idols, showpieces and materials in the zone. This nullifies the defect, just as a doctor's supplement corrects a deficiency.
Artifacts, idols and showpieces of the element or its planet
The defective or cut zone
Before any interior, fix the goal of the space, study the owner's kundali, check the current (energy) flow and base every arrangement, colour and artifact on planet combinations. Harmful yogas of the kundali must never be recreated with artifacts, while good yogas should be built.
Whole interior of a home, shop or factory
Interior vastu is emotion and action controlled by the interior: what the eye sees daily at home changes the mind. Pictures of God and loving family scenes bring good thoughts, while vulgar, violent or sorrowful images change emotions at once.
Living areas and rooms of the house
Family photos at home should show the whole family complete from head to feet, with no hand or foot cut, and statues or idols should show the full body. Close-up face photos and cut or bust figures bring trouble.
Full-body statues and idols
Family photos, statues and idols anywhere in the house
The best place for a home temple is the West with the deities facing East, as in the great temples; SW and WSW also work, and a Saraswati temple suits WSW. Keep the shikhar small, never hang consecrated idols, and stand elephant figures on a solid base.
West, SW or WSW, deities facing East
Hang a sphatik (crystal) chandelier over the dining table, keep light colours, greenery and flowers, a good table and chairs, and a picture of God in the dining room.
Dining room
The deity faces East first and North second, never South; the worshipper faces North for wealth, East for spiritual progress and South or West for tantra, and before a consecrated idol all directions become zero.
Home temple, puja room and festival puja
Each zone suits a particular worship: North for Saraswati and Ganesh, NNE for pranic sadhana, NE and East for meditation, South for Hanuman and Devi, West best of all, while SE, SSE and SSW suit no puja.
Best: West. By deity: North, NNE, NE, East, South, SW (ancestors), WSW, WNW, NW, NNW. No puja: SE, SSE, SSW.
The South-West is the zone of Rahu-Ketu. Its interior uses golden yellow, white or ivory, black stone, blue sapphire, amethyst and iron, a Nandi, awards and certificates, mountain and village sceneries, and tall outdoor trees.
Nandi statue
South-West; tall trees outdoors in the South and South-West
The East belongs to the Sun. Its interior uses light orange, greens, pink, yellow and ivory white, sandstone, copper or gold-polished showpieces, sunrise pictures and sun-loving plants.
East zone and East wall; garden to the East
Pictures of God should be complete with the feet clearly visible, never cut-outs; the deity should face North-East, while devis and devtas can face West.
Deity faces North-East; devis may face West
Several popular fancy-vastu items are not recommended: aluminium wind chimes pollute the air, the laughing Buddha and bamboo flutes under beams are myths, pig figures make no sense, and idols showing only a face or a half-cut deity are wrong.
Entrance and living areas
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.
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.
A daily bath in water in which a potli of the herbs of the nine planets has been dipped; tirth darshan during every eclipse and during vyatipat yoga; using swar in every daily activity from waking to sleeping; and daily abhishek of the consecrated deity, applying the dust of the feet of the deity on the forehead and sprinkling the abhishek water in the house above navel height.
To change the mind (chitt) through images (chitra), even the minds of the devtas. Agni is regarded as a virgin goddess who feels shy on seeing such scenes, so lightning has never struck these temples, and the pleasure-loving Indra, lord of rain, is pleased and gives Khajuraho good rain; tribal women still plough naked under the moonlight when rain fails. The kings also wanted their heirs not to become ascetics.
All of them, photos of ancestors, gods and family and statues of deities, will be taught in detail later, including where each goes and which way it should face. Even the wider world is confused about which way ancestors' photos should face.
Hanging is ruled out for consecrated deities: if the idols are pran-pratishthit (consecrated), they must never hang.
Raw shape also works; no particular form is needed. A statue carved from the stone, such as a Saraswati in citrine, lapis lazuli or any quartz, works double.
If it holds a consecrated (pratishthit) idol, the idol should be moved. If the idol is not consecrated, there is no need to worry, as these rules apply to consecrated idols.
Yes, there is no problem in putting God's photo in the Brahmasthan, because it is the place of Brahma.
Yes, they also represent a planet and should be placed correctly. A consecrated God's photo should face North or East, or West if that is not possible, but never South; South-facing is for the photos of ancestors who have left this world.
A statue of Lord Buddha can be kept, but not a Laughing Buddha.
If it is kept with a purpose there is no problem; it depends on the purpose for which the statue was made and is kept.