In last 15 years, I have heard a lot hype being created with respect to Vastu Shastra (Shaastra) which led to rise of stars in this segment offering consultancy so that you can have peace and happiness in your house/home. I have seen a good number of people almost recreating their living spaces in accordance with Vastu Shastra, altough I am not really sure if that really help them to gain that peace, happiness or prosperity they were looking for.

For me when I had thought to buy my house and office, I never looked into this aspect, and luckily enough I am happy in my house and office. Before writing here about vastu shastra, I was just casually going through Wikipedia and I found some important aspects of vastu shastra which I have listed here
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Terminology

All places of dwelling are termed vastu but the actual physical manifestation of the dwelling is called vaastu (the vrddhi, vastu). Both terms are from the root vas “to dwell, live, stay, abide” (cognate with the English past tense was).

There are four categories of Vaastu-

• The earth/site - Bhoomi, the principal dwelling place on which everything else rests
• The structures on the earth - Prasada
• Movable objects (vehicles) - Yaana
• Furniture - Sayana

As these categories suggest, the principles of Vaastu Shastra extend from the macro level to the micro level - site selection, site planning and orientation, zoning and disposition of rooms, proportional relationships between the various parts of buildings and the character of buildings.

Fundamental concepts

There are many principles in Vaastu Shastra. To mention a few which involve certain mathematical calculations, Maana is used for proportional relationships in a building and Aayaadi specifies conditions for maximum wellbeing and benefits for the residents of a building. Below are some of the basic theories in vaastu sastra.

Five elements

According to vaastu sastra, the world comprises five basic elements known as the pancha maha bhoota. Out of the nine planets, ours has life because of the presence and balance of these five elements. The five elements are as follows.

EARTH (Bhumi) - Earth, the third planet in order from the sun, is a big magnet with North and South poles as centers of attractions. Its magnetic field and gravitational force has considerable effects on everything on the Earth, living and non-living.

WATER (Jala) - This is represented by rain, river, sea and is in the form of liquid, solid (ice) and gas (steam, cloud). It forms part of every plant and animal. Our blood is nothing but water with haemoglobin and oxygen.

AIR (Vayu) - As a life supporting element, air is a very powerful life source. Human physical comfort values are directly and sensitively dependent on correct humidity, air flow, temperature of air, air pressure, air composition and its content.

FIRE (Agni) - Represents light and heat which account for day, night, the seasons, energy, enthusiasm, passion and vigour.

SPACE (Akasha) - The akasha provides shelter to all the above elements. It is also considered the primary conductor of all energy sources within the universal context - physical energies such as sound and light, social energies such as psychological and emotional, and cognitive energies such as intellect and intuition.

There is an invisible and constant relation between all the five elements. Thus, the man can improve his conditions by properly designing his buildings by understanding the effectiveness of these five natural forces. Vaastu sastra combines all the five elements of nature and balances them with the man and the material. It takes advantage of the benefits bestowed by the five elements of nature to create a congenial living and working environment thereby facilitating spiritual well-being and paving the way for enhanced health, wealth, prosperity and happiness.

Vaastu Purusha Mandala

The Vaastu Purusha Mandala is an indispensable part of vaastu sastra and constitutes the mathematical and diagrammatic basis for generating design. It is the metaphysical plan of a building that incorporates the course of the heavenly bodies and supernatural forces. Purusha refers to energy, power, soul or cosmic man. Mandala is the generic name for any plan or chart which symbolically represents the cosmos.

In Hindu cosmology the surface of the earth is represented as a square, the most fundamental of all Hindu forms. The earth is represented as four-cornered in reference to the horizon’s relationship with sunrise and sunset, the North and South direction. It is called Chaturbhuji (four cornered) and represented in the form of the Prithvi Mandala. The astrological charts or horoscopes also represent in a square plan the positions of the sun, moon, planets and zodiac constellations with reference to a specific person’s place and time of birth.

The legend of the Vaastu Purusha is related thus. Once a formless being blocked the heaven from the earth and Brahma with many other gods trapped him to the ground. This incident is depicted graphically in the Vaastu Purusha Mandala with portions allocated hierarchically to each deity based on their contributions and positions. Brahma occupied the central portion - the Brahmasthana- and other gods were distributed around in a concentric pattern. There are 45 gods in all including 32 outer deities.

The Vaastu Purusha is the presiding deity of any site. Usually he is depicted as lying on it with the head in the northeast and legs in the southwest but he keeps changing position throughout the year.

Prana

Vaastu sastra prescribes desirable characteristics for sites and buildings based on flow of energy (prana in Sanskrit). Many of the rules are attributed to cosmological considerations - the sun’s path, the rotation of the earth, magnetic field, etc. The morning sun is considered especially beneficial and purifying and hence the east is a treasured direction. The body is considered a magnet with the head, the heaviest and most important part, being considered the North Pole and the feet the South pole. Hence sleeping with one’s head in the north is believed to cause a repulsive force with the earth’s magnetic north and thus considered harmful. Bedrooms are therefore designed keeping this in mind. This is a wide spread practice in India even today.

Energy is primarily considered as emanating from the northeast corner and many site and building characteristics are derived from this. Sites sloping down towards north or east from higher levels of south and west are considered good. Open spaces in site and openings in the building are to be more in the north and east than in the south and the west. No obstacles are to be present in the north and the east. Levels and height of buildings are to be higher in the south and west when compared to the north and east. The southwest corner is to be the highest, followed by southeast, then by northwest and finally by northeast. The triangle formed by joining the southwest, southeast and the northwest corner of the site is attributed to the moon and the triangle formed by joining the northeast, northwest and southeast corner of the site is attributed to the sun. The former are prescribed to be heavier and higher and the latter light and lower. Sites having a longer east-west axis are considered better. The diagonal connecting southwest and northeast is to be longer than the diagonal connecting southeast and northwest. An extended northeast corner is considered beneficial.

n accordance with the position occupied by the gods in the mandala, guidelines are given for zoning of site and distribution of rooms in a building. Some of these are:

• North - treasury
• Northeast - prayer room
• East - bathroom
• Southeast - kitchen
• South - bedroom
• Southwest - armoury
• West - dining room
• Northwest - cowshed

(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_shastra)