Vastu: Breathing Life into Space by Robert Svoboda

Author:Robert Svoboda [Svoboda, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780988916906
Publisher: Namarupa Inc
Published: 2013-04-12T18:30:00+00:00

Brahmā the Creator is the embodiment of the creative power of Brahman the Absolute; Brahmā possesses attributes and confers attributes on others, while Brahman remains ever attribute-free.

Ananta, or Śeṣa, who rules the downward direction, supports the earth on his thousand hooded heads. Snakes are notorious for being powerful and uncooperative, but divine intervention caused this particular snake-being to be transformed from a potential destroyer into a protector. Śeṣa means “residue”—a residue that becomes a residence once it’s bound down.

Śeṣa is usually bound down at the time when a building’s foundation stone is laid. An astrologer will determine a spot where Śeṣa is regarded as being present, and a wooden or metal peg will then be driven into the ground there. This “nailing down” of the Serpent fixes position, establishes directions, and makes the chaotic, cosmic: "Before its transfixing the Serpent moves in cyclic motion, proceeding from the East to the South-West and North, completing the cycle in the course of a year, moving one degree each day. By pinning the Serpent, time is fixed, transformed to the timeless. The world is made stable."*

This process of “binding down” a potentially dangerous force recalls, of course, the process by which the Vāstu Puruṣa is pinned to the ground. One Tibetan story conflates these two myths by making the Vāstu Puruṣa appear as the “earth-bellied snake deity,” who sports a hood of snakes and a man’s torso.

Restriction is also associated with the regents of the south, southwest, and west. Varuṇa, lord of the west, whose name comes from a root meaning “to restrain,” is the Vedic deity who measures. Varuṇa limits, circumscribes, kills the day; by measuring it, he provides it with its end.

Varuṇa wields a noose, as does Yama, lord of the south. Even Nirṛti, the southwest lord, is associated with binding and releasing. All three regents thus reflect mythologically the themes of constraint and termination that Vāstu astronomy suggests for these directions, themes that typically leave most people ill at ease.

Vāstu Puruṣa consequently lies face down with his head into the northeast, bowing low to Īśāna, “The Great Lord” who rules over that direction, whose energy is that of life. Accordingly, Vāstu prefers that most buildings face the life-giving east or north, and are aligned squarely with the cardinal directions. Most modern constructions do not, however, align with the compass rose, which makes it more difficult for the energies and significations of the directions to express themselves easily and with natural clarity. Such misalignment may mean that your home will find it more difficult to ingest clear, benevolent directional energies from outside, and will “leak” some of its energy into its surroundings.

If your residence is not square with the cardinal directions, measure the angle by which it varies from true. A building whose frontal façade faces mostly north (to be precise, less than 20° off of north, in either direction) can be considered to be, effectively, northern. A building that is more than 25° off north in an easterly direction should be considered to face northeast; if more than 25° off north towards the west, view it as northwest.

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