How to architect your life and surroundings?

Even if you ask a little kid these days, they’ll be able to tell you that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west!! Not a big deal. I am sure kids are way smarter than that, but how about the adults?? Are they smart enough to know their directions and where they are going with it?? Children have been taught geometry, science and art across the globe but none of them integrating it all to create a better life. Strange how it sounds? I dont know how many people know about this, but Indians were able to sync all the different learnings and put them into an architectural style to align the energies around us in creating a successful, content and healthy life. Vastu Shastra, as it is called in Sanskrit, deals with the aspects of ancient Indian architectural style where designing patterns with precise measurements, spacing, location, construction planning, etc were studied and applied. Vastu Shastra in simpler terms is just a guiding layout based on scientific studies, how architectural designs should be, but not a rigid code, which includes space arrangements and scientifically determined positioning of various areas in a building structure according to their usage. For instance, the direction of your kitchen in your house, washrooms in any building, mall layout according to lighting etc)

The school of thought is such that majority of people have associated Vastu Shastra with superstitions. It is believed to be a gimmick of the so-called saints and priests who have no idea of what Vastu is and how it can influence the energies around. It has been portrayed in such a way that if you believe in Vastu you have to be superstitious else you would have gone by the word of a qualified Architect. The reason being the language in which these Shastra were written ie Sanskrit. Vastu Shastra is an ancient Indian treasure and obviously it had to be written in our favourite language Sanskrit which hardly a few people know these days. But pandits of modern society still have the command over this Hindu scripture and thus we believe it’s all a spoof like any other baba or. But the reality is, these days learned professionals who do not dress up like stereotypical sadhus or priests. These professionals are not your regular saffron clad, dhoti-kurta sadhus but well educated and qualified professionals who might not be architects but they advise such architects on creating a better living and working space, basically using the construction space to the best of its potential

Let us be honest that it is a competitive world out there today and we cannot expect one person doing the task of perfecting the Vastu Vidhya (Vastu Shastra is the textual part of this) and also being an excellent architect. In ancient times people could multitask, you could have one person who knew Vastu Vidhya and architecture both, also being able to look over town planning, home construction, how to build efficient villages, towns and also integrating them with water bodies, gardens, temples (as Vastu Shastra is traditional Indian system) to achieve harmony with nature. Plus, the population was less which meant that the magnitude of work and scope was limited. But one still feels that it was more of theory and less of practical application because of numerous reasons. But the thought process behind creating the Vastu Shastra was scientific and has only positives. So to put it into practical use, which wasn’t in the 18th and 19th century, there is a distinction of work. We have special organizations like AskAcharya who have the best professionals into Vastu Shastra to guide architectural firms on what they should be doing with their layout and maps. Sunil Mehtani is best Vastu expert in Delhi.  It is not rocket science to understand that if the direction of your Kitchen is not in the SE(South-East) direction and the cook would not be facing the east direction for cooking. This would interrupt with the science of natural ventilation, that it lets out the smoke. Also as the UV rays of sun won’t graze the food, won’t kill any harmful microorganisms present in the food. Ideally a kitchen should be SE facing according to all these benefits but how many people do it? Thus the question how many adults know their direction and where they are going with it?

It influences every aspect of our life because we are hardly on the road but rest of the time we are either at home or work or anywhere in-doors. So if we have all our buildings, towns, homes, religious places etc based only and only on scientific knowledge, it would make us healthy, feeling positive with the energy and accomplishing things which we otherwise would not have that easily. It is very evident what Coronavirus lockdowns have taught us that it’s the energy and vibe that plays a very important role in our outlook towards life. We all have been sitting at home, being depressed and wanting this to get over because there are things which we could have accomplished better had the energies around us been positive. But none of it happened. Going by Vastu Shastra is only a simple way of channelizing these energies into our veins and motivating us in a positive manner. AskAcharya and many more have been helping people with Vastu knowledge they possess related to health (homes, hospitals, clinics), wealth (property, factories, malls, industries) and life (town planning, schools, public halls).