The earth is tilted about 23 degrees toward the NE, so this corner receives the most energy; it is the zone of clarity. Keep it low and open, use it for water, study and worship, and keep here everything you want to charge or speed up.
About two hours before sunrise the sun sends ultraviolet rays into the North-East, which bring the greatest alertness to the neurons and glial cells of the brain. This pure energy suits the pure soul, so the North-East is the zone of clarity of mind and the place for worship.
The Sun's light arrives about 48 minutes before sunrise in NNE and NE, carrying the most vitamin D, B12 and Ayurvedic energy, so NNE is the zone of health and immunity. It suits rooms for the elderly and the sick, medicines, water and open space; only toilets and fire are forbidden.
Before sunrise the North-North-East receives the most vitamins (D, A, B12) and minerals, including silver, so it improves health and is the zone of health and immunity; a sick person is kept in this zone.
In NNW the influence of Kuber's North spreads sideways and attraction is strongest, so it is the zone of sex and attraction. It is the best bedroom for a newly married couple and suits display and dressing.
Through its magnetic pole the North captures the full energy of the 72 kalas of the Moon but cannot use it itself, and passes it on to the North-North-West (and to the North-North-East). This makes the North-North-West the zone of attraction, used for example to attract customers.
The North-West is ruled by Vayu (air), without which no life lasts more than two minutes. Its planet is the Moon and its stone is moti (pearl); it is the world's greatest messenger and gives travel and servants (helpers).
NW brings prana and fresh air and pushes stale air out, so cross ventilation is a must; the teacher calls it the gateway (get-away) zone. It is a natural fridge for storing grain and the Moon's place, which makes it the ideal zone for the overhead tank.
The North-West receives an energy that comes and goes; it speeds up movement, giving and taking, arriving and leaving, and is used whenever something has to be sent away or taken out, or someone has to be called.
Business is ruled by Budh (Mercury), which wood represents, so office tables and furniture should be made of the best solid wood such as teak, without black or grey glass tops.
An office must be full of energy, with the chairman's cabin longer on the North-South axis, the owner facing North, proper ventilation, perfectly level furniture and a floor sloping to the North-East.
Each zone favours a particular kind of office: East for administration, North for finance, West for engineering and profit, WSW for every office, SW for employment and stability and ENE for media.
Oil-based paint contains lead that is released into the air and breathed in, causing cough, cold, eye irritation and disease; water-based paint should be used instead.
Om, with the swastik, is the greatest symbol in vastu remedies: it creates and ends creation and is said to generate 10 lakh bovis of energy. It may be placed in any direction and should hang above navel height; the Vedic Devanagari Om is the best of its forms.
Palaces and old houses had an open-to-sky courtyard at the centre, which kept the mind clear; when the courtyard disappeared, that clarity went too. If the centre cannot be open to the sky on every floor, a double height at the Brahmasthan still balances the space element.
Like the full aspect of Jupiter in a kundli, a devta casts its full drishti on the devta opposite it (for example Surya on Varun) and keeps it balanced; if one devta cannot be treated, balance the one whose full drishti falls on it.
The four directions arose from Brahma's four faces and the four corner directions from his four arms, or from his four manas putras. Each is linked to a Veda or Upaveda: East to the Rigveda, South to the Yajurveda, West to the Samaveda and North to the Atharvaveda; South-East to Ayurveda, South-West to Dhanurveda and North-East to Sthapatya Veda, with Gandharva Veda completing the four.
During the battle with Andhakasur a drop of sweat fell to the earth and produced a being whose rampage made the earth shake. Brahma had him lie face down and promised that he would be worshipped with offerings and that not an inch of land would be built on without remembering him.
During Shiva's battle with Andhakasura a drop of his sweat produced a starving mahabhoot; devas and asuras laid him face down and 45 devtas sat on him, creating 45 places with separate functions on every plot. Brahma made him his manas putra and promised that whoever occupies land would remember and feed him.
Besides bones, coal, ash, some animal fossils and kaudi in the ground act as shalya. A furnace (bhatti) left buried under a building ruins the family and the business, and kaudi must never be buried, although gomti chakra can be.
An overhead tank can be built anywhere from the West to the North-West; NNW and the South-West are wrong, and a tank over the staircase is best avoided.
The overhead tank belongs in the NW, the Moon's place, or in Varun's West. Most people wrongly build it in the SW, which is dry Rahu-Ketu territory with very intense infrared.
Every plot is divided into pads (sections) according to its use: 81 pads for a residence, 64 pads for a temple or religious place, and a separate layout for a town. Directions are further divided into 16 and 32 parts, down to 11.25 degrees, on which the 45 Vastu devtas are marked.
Pad vinyas divides a plot into equal squares (padas) occupied by the vastu devtas, and the number of padas depends on what is being built: 49 for reconstruction, 64 for towns and certain temples, 81 for houses and cowsheds, 100 for all temples, and up to 1000 for a fort.
A picture changes the mind, so a painting can create a dosh. A painting of a tree, mountain, river, road or pillar facing the main door acts as a dwar vedh, water scenes do not belong on South, West or SW walls, and mountain scenes do not belong on the North wall.
The same vastu does not suit everyone: not every South-facing house fails and not every North-East toilet gives cancer. Interior choices of wood, metal, colour, material and artifacts are customised from a study of the planets of the person.
The fourth principle of interior vastu: study the physical and chemical properties of every building, decoration and remedy material (metal, wood, stone, adhesive, paint) and choose them according to the owner's planets.
Paintings split into joined pieces, dry or cut trees, cut photos, mirrors touching the floor, swastik or Om on the floor, crying women, screaming animals, scenes of anger, crime or the Mahabharata, and God without feet should not be kept at home.
The outermost band of a plot, the pishach bhoomi, is the seat of the 32 lokpals and bears the noise of the road. It is where the boundary wall and its gate, servant quarters, guards and pets belong, where flags are hoisted and where shilanyas (foundation stone laying) is done.
Photos of departed ancestors go in the South-West, but never inside a bedroom; family photos of the living go anywhere except the South and SSW zones, on a wall where their faces look North.