Ashopalav leaves look like mango leaves and are widely used in bandhanwars in Rajasthan. Can they be used instead?
No. What counts is composition and quality, not appearance; ashopalav leaves have a different composition, so they do not carry the properties of mango leaves. Mango leaves have many special qualities: their juice is used for purifying land, and where marriage is not happening or auspicious functions keep failing, mango leaf juice is applied as a lepan beneath the place where the girl or boy sleeps, after which the auspicious events take place.
Related questions
Which tree is called sindhu?
The mango tree. It is one of the tall outdoor trees for the South-West, and being very pure its leaves make the bandanwar for all auspicious functions.
A consultant had 2.5 kg of yellow mustard kept under a bed in the South-West; a year later dowsing showed strong negativity and there were daily quarrels. Can yellow mustard create negativity?
Yellow mustard that was washed, energised and commanded cannot give negativity. Mustard simply bought from the market and placed without purification and command does not work, even a ton of it in a shop, and it may bring negativity from wherever it came. Incomplete knowledge is very dangerous.
Mango leaves are not available abroad; what is the alternative to a mango leaf toran?
Draw five swastiks with your own hand, using kesar, on the main entrance; they become a permanent bandhanwar (toran).
Which toran should a vastu consultant (vastuvid) hang?
The teacher left it to the students; their suggestions, a mango leaf swastik toran and a toran of cow-dung cakes, were both called correct. He then gave his best (Kohinoor) bandhanwar for any wrongly placed door: make round discs of desi cow dung, draw a swastik on each, fix them on a bandhanwar strip and hang it on the main door, and the defects end. The alternative, a daily desi cow-dung lepan in front of the main door with a rangoli in the colour of its zone, is hard to keep up every day, so the permanent bandhanwar is better.
A big peepal tree stands in the North-West of my own house and my health has suffered since I moved in; is it the cause?
Yes, it definitely causes trouble; a peepal tree there harms health. If the house were rented you could simply leave; since it is your own, give it on rent and live elsewhere.
A bone was found on a plot meant for an industry. What must be done before building there?
Removing the bone is not enough; the land needs its rites, just as a house is purified after a death. Do a vastu registry with five coconuts (four corners and the bone spot), remove the affected soil, do agni sanskar with mango wood, ghee and camphor in 16 places and float the ash in flowing water, purify with water and mantra, sprinkle gomutra and plaster with cow dung, put lime and sulphur in the pit, keep a lamp burning there for 24 hours, and mix a little mercury into the soil and the four corners. If the shilanyas had already been done, it is broken and must be redone after purification.