Vastu Shastra has a large following among home buyers of Indian subcontinent. This article provides some background on this ancient practice. If you are a new home buyer and would like to find a home that follows Vastu Shastra, please contact me and I can help you find the perfect home!
Vastu Shastra is an ancient Indian science of harmony and prosperous living by eliminating negative and enhancing positive energies around us. Vastu Shastra (Vastu) is essentially a collection of ancient design principles pertaining to the creation of built space, with origins in Hindu culture, and said to be effective in achieving harmony and balance between man and his environment (or a more harmonious person-environment fit, from the standpoint of environmental psychology) through the built form.
Vastu shastras are canons dealing with the subject of vastu which means the environment. Put differently, one may regard them as codification of good practices of design of buildings and cities, which will provide settings for the conduct of human life in harmony with physical as well as metaphysical forces. These canons provide guidelines for design of buildings and planning of cities such that they will bring health, wealth and peace to the inhabitants.
Fortunately, Indians are not alone in this in recent times. Across Asia there is a resurgence of these beliefs and practices. Feng-shui, the Chinese version of Vastushastras, is practiced all over the Far East and South-east Asia.
In ancient India, people believed house as a living organism and treated constructing a house as sacred ceremony. According to vastu shastra, different directions belong to different Gods that supervise respective sectors of the house. For example, God supervises Eshan or North-East direction and hence is best suitable for prayer room; Agni (Fire element) supervises South-East direction and hence is best suitable for Kitchen. This means that if various sections and activities related to each section of a house, office, shop etc. stick to principles of vastu shastra then, we start to draw the power of nature effortlessly and achieving goals is easy, spontaneous and effortless.
Many rules of vastu shastra are simple common sense as they relate to ventilation, amount and quality of sunlight a building receives etc. But some principles of vastu shastra relate to energy field of earth and subtle energy fields in natural and constructed environments. Also, people living or working in such buildings have appreciated and verified the effects of these fields.
Some common Vaastu Shastra guidelines are listed below:
Do away with the clutter Cleanliness is a way to positivity, try to get rid of the clutter as much as you can. Dispose things that you haven't used for a year, you will never use them again. Make sure your home is well dusted and everything neatly kept. Clutter adds confusion and can result in arguments in the family. A clean house reflects a lot of positive energy.
Make sure your house doesn't have a lot of sharp edges
Carefully look at the corners walls of the home, make sure there aren't many open edges. Draw an aerial view of the home before buying it, you will get a clear idea. Avoid home with a lot of sharp edges as they attract negative energies. Similarly, even after buying the house, take care that racks, shelves and furniture have rounded edges.
Let your bedroom enhance your relationship
Use soothing colors in your bedroom, for walls as well as soft furnishings. Keep a couple of happy pictures of you and your spouse around, they help in strengthening the relationship between the couple. Make sure your bed doesn't face a mirror or anything made of glass, this brings bad dreams and effects the balance.
Avoid unattractive things and sounds Thorny plants like cactus and other shrubs should not be kept inside the house, they attract negative energies. Avoid keeping artificial cloth or plastic flowers or plants, instead decorate your house with real flowers. Similarly, do not have doorbells that do not have a pleasant ring, they tend to spoil the mood of the house.
Attract positive energy by selecting correct direction for your home Vastu Shastra is about attracting positive energy and making sure everything in your home emits and attracts positivity. Entrance of a house explains everything because this is the gateway from which energies constantly goes in and out. This important that main door should be maintained with utmost care. All the negative and positive energies surround here and which is why is important to locate main door in proper direction to maintain well-being and prosperity in house. Main door should be beautiful, clean and obstruction free from both outside and inside. Here are some Vaastu guidelines to be considered while designing the Main Entrance Door.
The main entrance should be in the East or in the North direction.
Avoid the main door directly facing the main door of the opposite house.
The main door should open inside and clockwise
The Entrance should be in the East or North direction
Avoid locating the main entrance door in the corners of the house.
The total number of doors, windows and ventilators in the house should be even in number for e g. 2, 4, 6 etc. but should not end with a 0 i.e. 10, 20 etc.
The width of the door should be half of the height of the door.
Entrance should never be dark and ensure that this place is well lit throughout.
Keep the entrance clutter free and tidy to make the surrounding positive.
Main gate should never face intersecting roads.
There should not be any obstruction in the entrance gate with things like poles, tree, wires and vehicles.