Also known asprinciples of vastuwhat is vastuvastu shastrasun raysmagnetic field
Modern practice measures from North at 0 degrees: East at 90, South at 180, West at 270 and North again at 360. Halving gives the corner directions at 45, 135, 225 and 315 degrees, and halving again gives sub-directions such as North-North-East at 22.5 degrees.
Neighbouring ponds, hills, tall buildings and factories affect a property even though they are not in the owner's registry. A tall building to the North blocks the magnetic energy and one to the East blocks the sun's rays.
Surroundings of the plot, especially taller structures to the North and East
Vastu is defined in complementary ways: the land of residence, the architectural art of coordinating nature and human, orientation according to the sun, the free movement of air, a structure that controls the mind, the management of universal energy and the balance of the five elements.
On the 10th to 25th floors the air moves with high intensity, so energy generated in a flat moves away quickly and the rules for ground-level buildings do not apply. Even a wrongly placed toilet in a high flat often causes no trouble.
Flats on upper floors
Gravitational force acts between the earth and every building, object and person. When columns, beams, walls, plaster and elevation are aligned with plumb line and level, the force stays balanced and the occupants remain healthy and alert; misalignment brings obstacles, illness and loss.
Plinth beam, columns, beams, walls and elevation
The word Vastu comes from the Sanskrit vas, the land of residence, so the condition of the land is judged before any direction. Land energy decides about 70 percent of the result.
Early morning sun brings positive ultraviolet rays rich in vitamins and metals, while after about 2 pm the rays turn infrared. Openings and wall thickness are planned accordingly so the building admits good energy and blocks harmful energy.
Morning-sun side open and light; the side struck by the sun after about 2 pm heavy and closed
Jyotish can only tell whether a coming period will be good or bad, while Vastu supplies the energy of the sun and planets. By orienting and balancing a house to capture the energy of the nine planets, the afflictions shown in a horoscope (nav graha peeda) can be removed.
The energy of a place acts on whoever lives or works on it. Transferring a property's registry to someone else's name does not remove its Vastu defect, and tenants are affected as much as owners.
Energy rising from the land (geopathic) meets energy from the planets and stars (cosmic) and forms a third energy that can turn intense or toxic when mixed with household activity, so it must be able to leave the house. Every room therefore needs ventilation.
Every room, especially bedrooms
Sun rays are described as miracle rays that carry silver, gold, iron, mercury, lead and other minerals as well as vitamin D and vitamin B12, each at a particular time around sunrise. No electric light can supply these.
Raj Vallabh states that a temple with a large river flowing to its South becomes not merely a tirth but a mahatirth, because for a temple the water element stands for peace. Rules made for homes must not be applied mechanically to temples.
Temples with a river to the South
Vastu was traditionally divided into eight branches, among them griha (home), yantra, nagar (town), bhoomi (land), prasad (temple), vimaan (aircraft) and udyan (garden and tree) Vastu. None of them advises demolition.
Vastu knowledge passed by memory until it was written down in texts such as Samarangana Sutradhara, Mayamatam, the Skanda, Agni, Vayu and Garuda Puranas, Vishwakarma Prakash, Aparajita Prichha, Praman Manjari, Vastu Rajvallabh, Prasad Mandan, Vastu Mandan and Shilpa Ratna, each with its own focus.
Vastu results depend equally on four factors: dravya (the money used), kshetra (the land), kaal (the muhurta) and bhav (the feelings of the builders and residents). A perfectly planned house still fails if any one of them is wrong.
In the Jain account, during the bhog bhoomi of the third era kalpavriksha trees granted every wish, until rising sin made them stop giving. Adi Prabhu then taught the six means of livelihood, asi, masi, krishi, vidya, vanijya and shilpa, and gave the complete knowledge of Vastu to his fourth son Vishwakarma.
The four directions arose from Brahma's four faces and the four corner directions from his four arms, or from his four manas putras. Each is linked to a Veda or Upaveda: East to the Rigveda, South to the Yajurveda, West to the Samaveda and North to the Atharvaveda; South-East to Ayurveda, South-West to Dhanurveda and North-East to Sthapatya Veda, with Gandharva Veda completing the four.
During the battle with Andhakasur a drop of sweat fell to the earth and produced a being whose rampage made the earth shake. Brahma had him lie face down and promised that he would be worshipped with offerings and that not an inch of land would be built on without remembering him.
Start with Vishwakarma Prakash, the simplest, available in Hindi with the Sanskrit shlokas and their meaning (translated by Krishna Kumar Jugnu of Udaipur). Then read Mayamatam, both parts of Samarangana Sutradhara, Manasara and Raj Vallabh.
In the Geo Vastu system, the results of a property come 70 percent from land energy (the earth element), 20 percent from orientation and the main door, 5 percent from the interior and 5 percent from vastu protection. Land energy must therefore be checked first, because good orientation on weak land gives no result.
Vastu is the name for bringing the energy that pervades the universe to its correct direction and its real location. It is also defined as awakening one's own fortune (bhagya) through the energy of the land, and, for the North-West, as the unobstructed coming and going of air.
The earth is tilted 23.4 degrees toward the North-East. When a plot, plan and floor are sloped the same way, with the North-East kept lowest, the land falls in line with nature and absorbs the full energy, which collects most in the North-East.
Whole plot, floors and rooms
Any land, plot, flat or large project, whatever its carpet area, is divided into four concentric parts: the outer pishach bhoomi (pishach veethi), then the manushya bhoomi, then the dev bhoomi, and the brahm bhoomi at the centre. Each part has its own nature and decides what may be built or kept there.
Whole plot, from the boundary inward to the centre
The zone of an element can bear any amount of that element, so increasing fire in the South-East or South-South-East does not bring theft, fire or accidents, just as raising the South-West only strengthens its earth element.
South-East and South-South-East (fire); South-West (earth)
If the land energy is good, a building can still succeed despite mistakes in orientation; if the orientation is 100 percent correct but the land energy is zero, no effort brings results. Land energy is read best by your own soul and subconscious mind, not by equipment alone.
Both geopathic and cosmic energy exist in the form of the five elements. The universe, the body, the nine planets and every material, food, metal and artifact represent one element or another, so a building is balanced by balancing its elements.
The five chakras from the throat downwards hold the five elements in the same order as creation: Vishuddhi holds space, Anahata air, Manipur fire, Swadhishthan water and Muladhara earth.
Land (geopathic) energy, which is the earth element, carries 70 percent of the result of a building, while orientation and zoning carry 30 percent. A site with zero land energy fails however good its orientation and interiors are.
The early morning sun, arriving at a particular angle at the main door, fills a correctly placed entrance with energy that keeps the house and its people alert for the whole day and night.
Main door
In Vedic vastu the five elements arose one from another in a fixed order: Space, then Air, Fire, Water and Earth, after which the cycle returns to Space. This order, described in the Shiv Puran, is the base for knowing which element creates or destroys another.
This is taught while preparing maps: for summer, the rainy season and winter, the particular angle at which the rays strike and their composition are worked out, so that openings and walls can be planned for the maximum benefit without demolition.
Yes, fully. Vastu acts on whoever lives and walks on the land; Shravan Kumar did not own the river bank, yet it changed his mind. It is a myth that defects fall only on the person in whose name the registry is.
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.
Into four: the outer pishach bhoomi (pishach veethi), then the manushya bhoomi, the dev bhoomi and, at the centre, the brahm bhoomi. This is not the division into padas; it is the first division of any land, plot or flat.
Small homes of 70, 80 or 90 gaj are not treated with element-based directional vastu; aay vastu is applied to them instead. Under mathematical vastu, studied later, vastu applies to homes from about 100 gaj upward.
Accept only Vedic vastu, and accept a rule only when it is backed by the scriptures (granth); a lot of baseless vastu is going around. The difference shows in the element order: the chakras from throat to base hold space, air, fire, water and earth, and a system that reverses this changes the order of creation itself. India was regarded as the guru of the world for its knowledge, so there is no need to borrow foreign deities such as Fuk Luk Sau or the laughing Buddha for wealth.
Energy, both geopathic and cosmic, exists in the form of the elements. The universe, the body and everything in it are made of the five elements, and there is nothing in the world that does not represent one element or another.
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.
This was to be explained in detail later, as there is a big confusion about it. Asura devtas are also needed: the day there are no asuras in your house, your work will not run, so the aim is balance, not removing them.
Adi Brahma (Adi Prabhu) gave each son a different knowledge: Bharat received arthashastra, Bahubali kaam neeti and Ayurveda, Vrishabhsen gandharva shastra (music and instruments), and Anant Vijay all the arts of painting, colour, brushwork and artefacts. Anant Vijay is therefore the source of interior knowledge, which he spread further, and Vishwakarma received the knowledge of vastu.
Yes. Toilets were built at the rear of palaces, on the lower side, reached by pathways that did not join the main wall, and they were placed in the West-North-West. Kings never built attached toilets beside every room, even though they had every resource.