What is Vastu ? What is the importance of Direction in vastu shastra?
Any plot/Land bound with walls for purpose of constructing a house/office/commercial structure/temple/any construction is known as vastu.
ज्या जागेत घर किव्हा कोणत्या ही प्रकार चे बांधकाम करायचे आहे ती मर्यादा घातलेली जागा म्हणजे वास्तू.
जिस जगह पर घर या कोई भी प्रकार का निर्माण करने हेतु मर्यादा लगाई हुई जगह को वास्तु कहते है.
Importance of direction in vastu shastra
Directions play a very important role in vastu shastra because they determine the flow of energy, the universe is full of energy and it is freely flowing in all directions. Whenever a place is bound by walls the free flow of energy is affected there, the directions which are open bring in the energy and the directions which are closed block the flow of energy and vastu shastra is all about flow of energy, 5 elements, the vastu mandala devatas and the allocation of various aspects of vastu to its suitable direction. There is a great importance of directions in vastu shastra, We are going to see the meaning and importance of directions in this post.
Importance of direction in vastu shastra
There are four main directions and four sub directions resulting in total 8 directions as per vastu shastra, adding the sky and the land below make it to total 10 directions. Each direction is ruled by a diety which includes god and demons resulting in good and bad directions as per the rulership. There are total 9×9 grids resulting in 81 parts of vastu purush mandala used for construction of houses/commercial complexes out of which each part is ruled by a specific diety which is good or bad. The picture on the left shows the vastu purush mandala and the names of dieties divided into small parts in each direction.
The vastu grids used for planning a city, a house, a temple are different and have different set of formulae. The grids used for planning a house construction is not applicable on town planning and temple.
East and North are the most positive directions from where the flow of energy is positive and these directions should be left open or maximum open space.
South and West are the most negative directions and hence a house should have maximum block or heavy storage or compound walls in these direction.
East – Sun rises in the east and hence this is a very important direction, the flow of positive energies is from North to East and not from any other direction. Facing this direction is considered very good for many physical and intellectual works. It gives good intellectual growth, good health, vitality and prosperity. The east direction should have maximum openings in any vastu to get direct sunlight inside. Indra is the diety mainly ruling this direction.
South-East – This direction is considered important in vastu shastra from many angles, It consists of agni tattwa and hence beneficial to have cooking, fire related works in this direction. This also gives good health to women as they need high energy, this direction consists of south which is ruled by yama and East which is ruled by Indra so has both negative and positive aspects.
South – This is considered to be the worse direction in vastu shastra because it is ruled by yama the god of death and agni tattwa. The cosmic rays flowing in this direction are negative and very hot which is not good for health and overall prosperity, there should be no windows in the south direction, the slope in this direction should be higher and towards north which is good.
South-west – This direction is prithwi tattwa, heavy and fixed in nature. Both West and South are considered bad directions and their meeting in this direction makes it a negative direction in vastu shastra, the land here should have slope towards north and east to be beneficial. This direction is ruled by Yama, the god of death.
West – West is waste though it is not as negative as south it is still considered negative due to negative flow of energy in this direction, The sun also sets in the west. The deity of this direction is Lord Varun.
North-west – This direction is ruled by vayu tattwa and considered very unstable. This is not a completely bad direction but can be used for its positive aspects, Guest rooms can be made in this direction, products ready to be delivered or finished products can be kept here.
North – This is the direction of Kubera and soma and gives excellent financial prosperity if one has doors and windows in this direction, this direction should be maximum free of any clutter, vedha etc.
North-east – This direction is ruled by lord shiva and has watery element, it is very auspicious direction for having water sources and place of worship or dev gruha.
Having said this one should remember that the above are very general rules, there is no mention of things like there should be no door in south etc in classical literature of vastu, these are all recent developments. It is true that vastu shastra gives more importance to East and North directions due to positive flow of energies available in these directions but the remaining directions also have a lot of uses and can be used according to positive nature of work suitable for those direction, people say that a door in south is not good but the fact is vastu shastra allows having Main door in all direction. For example – A door in “Gruhakshat kappa/part of south is considered very good as per vastu shastra. Matsya Purana, Maansagara, Mayamattam, Samarangan sutradhar are some classical books which clearly lay out the conditions for having doors in all directions for vastu. There are further rules on how an entry into a house should be like direct, clock-wise, anti-clock wise, each has positive and negative aspect. The shapes of roofs and slopes in various directions are further important, the cuts and extensions in any vastu give very severely good or bad results depending on the directions.
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