Questions and Answers

Yes, they fall outside the building in that open margin, and that is exactly the logic of keeping the Pishach bhoomi open. If the devtas were marked on the built part alone, you would again ask for its Pishach bhoomi to be left empty, which is wrong. Things placed on the walls of the built house fall in the Manushya bhoomi.

An L-shaped plot is inauspicious in the first place. There is no special formula for its ratio; estimate it from its arms. The cut portion is a full loss, and how harmful it is depends on which corner is cut, which is best judged with the teacher case by case.

No, take the whole, including the terrace. Every place you can walk in and access is included when taking the centre; only areas you cannot reach are left out. Zoning only the built half can mislead, for example making a heavy store room look as if it sits in the North when the North of the whole is open, which is good. Large balconies and terraces of 200 to 300 sq ft are counted too.

Mark it the usual way: find the centre and north, place the chakra on the centre and mark the devtas. To divide the bands, take every corner of the shape, draw lines from the centre to each, apply the ratios and join the points; a similar shape forms inside. The more irregular the shape, the more complicated the work, and software makes it easier.

Measure a line from the centre to a corner on the ordinary scale, say 11 cm. Lay the Pishach vithi scale with its zero on the centre and mark where it reads 11, then do the same with the Manushya-Dev and the Brahma vithi scales. The zero must always be on the centre.

Include it in both cases, covered or not. You go there and move around in it, so it counts as part of the house.

Yes. Pin the cut-out shape to a wall, mark the point exactly below the pin in a straight vertical line and draw that line; repeat from another point, and the crossing is the centre. It is plain science of the centre of mass, since the side with more area is heavier and hangs lower. Done accurately, it gives a 100% exact centre.

Bhoomi vibhajan is not drawn for a flat, and a flat has no Pishach bhoomi dosh, because the building already has open space left on all sides. So whatever you keep inside the flat does not create that dosh.

Every point across the whole plot where the grid lines cross is a marma, so there are many of them, and not only in the Pishach bhoomi. The nine ati marma, formed by the six devta-to-devta lines, are the ones that matter most.

A wall on an ati marma is wrong, but when it belongs to another room it usually cannot be removed. Remedies such as the nine herbs mentioned in class give some results, and the full remedies are taught in the remedy classes.

In any room of any house, kothi or flat, a wall on an ati marma is not good, a column is very bad and a bed is even worse. A sofa also has an effect, but it is not much of a problem unless someone sits on that very spot for long hours every day.

Yes. Injection-type remedies, in which metal, gems and herbs are installed at the point, are used, and the full method is taught in the remedy classes. With a wall or column already standing there, expect only about 50% result, never the full result.

No. When part of the plot is cut, the true centre shifts, yet the square drawn through the corners stays the same, so its diagonals give a wrong centre. Diagonals were used in the earlier zoning class only because that map was regular, with the open parking area at the side.

Hardly anyone does. A professional either learns AutoCAD or has an AutoCAD operator draw the plan. The course teaches every step so that you can check the work when someone else gives you a wrong drawing; anyone who can use a laptop can learn the AutoCAD needed for Vastu in a day.

Set one wall to its real dimension, for example 10 feet. Once one wall is scaled correctly, the whole map automatically takes the right dimensions in feet.

In the 81 pad grid the line from the centre to a corner is 4.5 boxes long. From the centre, Brahma bhoomi ends at 1.5 boxes, Dev bhoomi at 2.5 and Manushya bhoomi at 3.5, and Pishach bhoomi runs to 4.5. Dividing by 4.5 gives 0.333, 0.555 and 0.777, which are applied to the real length of each centre-to-corner line on the map.

54 degrees. Each 90 degree quarter of the middle band has 10 equal boxes of 9 degrees, and Vivasvan covers 6 of them, so 6 x 9 = 54. The two side devtas take 2 boxes each, 18 degrees.

No. They are ordinary scales made in the 0.777, 0.555 and 0.333 ratios to save time. With a calculator, multiply the measured length by the ratio, for example 9.1 x 0.777 = 7.07, and mark about 7 cm from the centre on a normal scale.

No, ask for the current location; a live location cannot be opened for this work. Copy the coordinates, paste them in the Google Earth search box and confirm with the client that it is the right property before taking the degree.

Because in a regular, proportionate plot almost all nine ati marma fall in the Brahmasthan. So an aangan (courtyard) or open space was left there, or the area was kept free of regular stable activity and heavy items. In an irregular plot there is no guarantee where the points fall.

In the Pishach bhoomi, the outermost band. The 32 outer devta lines are drawn only within the Pishach bhoomi, while the 12 inner devtas sit in the combined Manushya and Dev band and Brahma in the centre.

Taking the degree correctly from Google Earth and marking north correctly. If north is right, everything else falls into place; if it is wrong, every zone, devta and ati marma goes wrong. Almost every plot, house or factory is tilted, usually by about 10 to 20 degrees, so north must be measured with care.

No. A farmer who sows a seed does not end his bond with it there: he protects, waters and nurtures it until it flowers, fruits and grows into a shady tree, even a kalpavriksha (wish-fulfilling tree). In the same way, Indian architecture holds that a structure of stone and lime is not lifeless; prana settles into the building and its soil and controls the feelings of the people who live there, so the devtas established in the land must keep being nurtured.

In the Matsya Purana account, a drop of sweat fell from Shiva during his battle with the demon Andhaka and a great being (mahabhoot) arose, so hungry that it could devour the three worlds. On Brahma's order the devtas and asuras pinned it face down and 45 devtas sat on its body. Brahma granted that it would be remembered and given food and water whenever anyone occupies land, and that if it was not fed it could open its third eye and create havoc; he accepted it as his manas putra (mind-born son). The 45 places where the devtas sat became the 45 pads, each with its own function, like the separate work of the eyes, ears, nose and hands; medical science too speaks of 45 departments of the body.

As the sun rises in the East and crosses the sky, and the moon adds its influence, the rays reach each part of the land at particular angles (1 degree, 5.625 degrees, 11.25 degrees) and keep changing the composition and chemistry of each spot. The sun, the moon, the 27 nakshatras and the 9 planets project their energies at particular angles of inclination and transform the soil, which is why the same land has given crops for thousands of years. Every particle has its own energy and chemistry that cannot be destroyed, only transformed; people who trusted religion more than science named these energies devtas.