Also known asshakunomensnimittsigns
A practitioner should know at least 20 methods of testing land energy, and the diploma teaches 25. They include the swar method (the change in one's swar on stepping onto the land), organic, inorganic, physical, chemical, biological, botanical, mechanical, water-movement and petrology methods, pendulum dowsing, nimitta and shakun.
The plot under consideration
During aahuti with the Bhoomi Jagran Mantra, the flame takes the shape of whatever negative object lies in the land; photographing the flame and studying it shows what is buried there or what has been done to the land.
On the land being tested
Where a bird's droppings fall on the visitor's body or clothes, where the visitor gets hurt, or where itching starts on the way to or while walking a land points to the matching part of the Vastu Purush where a defect or buried bone (shalya) lies.
The part of the plot that matches the body part, as mapped on the Vastu Purush
The custom of boiling milk in a new home is a nimitta test: milk that boils over silently is auspicious, while crackling or popping sounds show that some ritual remained incomplete or a defect remains in the construction.
Kitchen fire of the new home
An ashtang nimitta method that reads where on the body the person asking about a plot feels itching. The spot tells whether the buried bone is of an animal or a human, male or female, and which animal.
What happens on the way to see a plot and at the moment of stepping onto it is itself a test of the land. Injuries, sneezing, frightening encounters, breakdowns and accidents are read as signs, along with what one meets on the way, such as a full kalash, a dog or a pig.
Certain mangalik (auspicious) sights on the way to a property show that the plot or flat is very auspicious and will keep filling life with happiness.
The threshold (dehleez) of the home acts as a testing machine: the moment you step over it to go and see a plot, flat or factory, your breath and body signal whether that property is good. Equal flow in both nostrils or left-side body signs warn against it; earth or water element in the breath and right-side signs approve it.
Threshold (dehleez) of your own home
The behaviour of street dogs, jackals and crows at a plot or flat reveals its quality: a crow cawing while facing East or North is a good sign, while crying dogs and a crow on a dry tree are grave warnings.
Twitching of an eye on reaching a land shows its quality, read in opposite ways for men and women: the right eye is auspicious for a man and the left eye for a woman.
Shakun shastra (nimitta gyan) reads the signs met on the way to a property; certain sights and events on the journey warn that the plot or flat is not good. They arise because the land's energy is already acting on the visitor's body chemistry.
When someone asks whether to buy a land, flat or house, the side on which they stand relative to the expert's active nostril and the manner in which they ask reveal whether the land is good. A trained swar expert can read the land this way even from far away.
What one first sees and hears on stepping onto a land or into a flat indicates its energy: black items, broken things, snake holes and harsh sounds are bad signs, while a conch, aarti or auspicious songs, a rainbow or a joyful sky are good ones.
Clothes that tear, get a hole, or get soiled with mud, dung or dirty water on the way to or at a land signal that the land is not good; the position of a tear shows how bad it is.
When someone comes with a coconut to ask about a land's energy, the quality of that coconut mirrors the land: a ripe, sound coconut means good land, while a light or rotten one means poor land energy.
Signs met while leaving home to see a land or building, such as body reactions, itching, dreams and sights on the road, foretell the energy and future of that property before you even reach it.
Gandharva nagar are clouds that form shapes like cities and palaces; Parjanya devta is contained in them, and their colour and form foretell what is coming for the world.
The sky
There are ten directions: the four main directions, the four corner directions (vidisha), the upward (urdhva) and the downward (adho), each with its own dikpal. To master them a practitioner needs knowledge of about ten subjects beyond Vastu itself.
This belongs to ashtang nimitta. A cat coming from the right side gives an auspicious sign and one coming from the left an inauspicious sign; if the cat crosses and then stands in the middle staring at you, the land is very bad and you should not go there at all, as even the visit brings negativity. Cats and dogs are the biggest dowsers: they react first even before an earthquake, and a cat senses that you are on the way to a wrong task and tries to stop you.
The left part of a woman is always considered auspicious, which is why she is called vamangi, and moles or marks on her left side are also auspicious. In swar vigyan the Chandra (left) nadi represents the female and the Surya (right) nadi the male, so an active left side or a good sign on the left of the body is favourable for a woman and the right side for a man. If a man's left eye or a woman's right eye twitches on reaching a land, the land is very bad, because the sign is working against that person.
It is a negative sign. A bird striking the head gives a health-related indication and warns that an illness may be coming. This is part of the wider subject of ashtang nimitta.
Before pouring water, check the pit for insects and clear them; the process should not be done with insects in it. Insects living inside the soil come out when water is poured, and that is not an omen. What matters is the air bubbles: a bubble bursting suddenly with a cracker-like sound sometimes gives a negative indication.
The pit water test tells whether it will balance. If all the air bubbles in the pit merge and vanish, everything will become fine after treatment.
Yes, it is nimitta gyan and not merely a custom of letting milk boil over for luck. If the milk heats fully and boils over without any sound, it is auspicious, a sign that the offering has been accepted. If it crackles or pops like ghee on heat, some ritual was left incomplete or some defect remains in the construction or the griha pravesh. The colour of the flame where milk or ghee falls, red, yellow or black, is also read.
Gandharva nagar are clouds that take the shape of towns and palaces in the sky; they belong to Parjanya, the cloud devta, and are also a subject of ashtang nimitta. Dark gandharva nagar warn that a calamity or a terrible disease is coming; such formations were seen about four months before Corona. Bright, clean white clouds point to good rain, growth of wealth and grain, rising dharma and a happy, prosperous people. Market rises and falls, crops and diseases are read from about 50 types of gandharva nagar.
Itching below the navel indicates a four-legged animal and above the navel a two-legged one. For an animal the itching shows at both places: for a dog it first comes in the legs and then immediately on the head.