Perhaps it is the renewed pride that we feel as Indians in our culture and traditions, is one of the reasons for the rediscovery of this ancient practice. Therefore, today it is not unusual to see builders and promoters advertising their properties by saying that the construction has been done in keeping with the principals of Vaasthu. But, to the layperson who's abundant knowledge of Vaasthu is fed regularly with a steady influx of articles (both online and offline) on the subject is curious to know how far this is commercially viable as far as the builders are concerned. Especially when one takes into account the growing demand and growing scarcity of available land. As far as the vaasthu practitioners are concerned there are varying views. According to Lion Yuvaraja, who's family have been practicing Vaasthu for over four decades in the city says' due to several factors builders are able to implement only about 30% of the principles laid down by Vaasthu Shastra.
!00% implementation is possible only in independent houses.' Contrary to this opinion Mr. C. Ravindran of Design lab says, ' I have a number of builder clients and I can vouch that though we are forced to make compromises sometimes, in most cases we follow the Vaasthu principals to the letter t.' Tasneem, Senior Manager, sales and administration, of Firm Foundations says that, 'since most people prefer to buy houses/apartments that have been designed as per vaasthu we as builders try to implement these principals as far as possible. In my opinion we are to apply the basic principals to a large extent.
' 'The constraints we feel when trying to implement Vaasthu are that sometimes these principles limit the scope of the design. However, in the apartments we make sure that the placement of the various rooms is as per Vaasthu. Besides, if an individual; customer desires to make some alterations within his own apartment (changes which do not have an impact on the main structure) we can have it done.' Nagendran, Manager, Property Development of Appasamy Real estates says that, 'yes we do try to implement Vaasthu wherever possible. For instance if there are 100 apartments then we can't have all the kitchens in the southeast.
So we often place it in a position, which is not negated by Vaasthu. Besides, we use a combination of Vaasthu and FengShui. So sometimes when it is not possible to make structural changes we use a harmonious colour scheme (recommended by Feng Shui) to usher in good luck. At the end of the day it is about making people who are going to live in that house happy. It is a mind set.' According to vaasthu Shastra every object and living creature exudes vibrations.
These vibrations may be positive or negative. Vaasthu aims at creating a place where there is maximum generation of positive energy and minimum generation and accumulation of negative energy by allowing free flow and proper placement of the elements, wind, water, fire and air. What is very interesting is that though the science has been around for hundreds of years it is still evolving. The modern day vaasthu practitioners have adapted the basic principals of Vaasthu to suit the modern day context.
C Ravindran of Design Lab who has been practicing vaasthu shastra for more than a decade and a half says that the people who were aware of the existence of this science have always been practicing it. However, during the British Raj the practice and popularity of this science deteriorated. Now however, it is picking up again.
Answering the question that keeps occurring in the minds of all those who want to implement the principals of Vaasthu but shy away thinking that it may require a lot of structural changes in the building itself Mr. Ravindran says,' this is a misnomer. It is possible to implement the principals of vaasthu without demolition and structural changes.' For instance, a beam or a pillar in the centre of the living room is not desirable. However, in my experience I have found that most modern apartments have this kind of construction.
In such a situation what can be done is that the pillar can be concealed by being transformed into a storage space. Referring to the growing popularity of Feng Shui, Chandramohan of Raghavendra Vaasthu consultants says that it won't be wrong to say that both these sciences have their roots in India. It was the Buddhist monks who carried the knowledge of vaasthu to China. Then the Chinese scholars studied the basic principals and developed what is known as Feng Shui. Actually, as far I know Fengshui prescribes remedies for problems caused by the improper balancing of energies. It also has some details about how structures should be constructed.
But in Vaasthu we have details about everything to do with the construction of residential or commercial buildings along with remedies for problems. Vaasthu Pandit, T Subramanian says, 'One of the purest forms of rectification as mentioned in Vaasthu Shastra is the placement of Yantras in the eight cardinal compass directions of a property. These powerful tools will help in creating positive energy, which will negate any negative energy that is present.
This in turn will cure any negativity that may have afflicted the property.' When speaking on yantras, Yuvraj says, "we recommend these yantras just as the Feng Shui practioners recommend remedies like placing certain objects in certain directions. However, the only limitation is that these rituals have a religious base.
' Reddy who owns a large publishing house says that he has seen growth and positive changes in his business ever since he has implemented Vaasthu. Whereas, if we are to go by the recent horror film release Vaasthu Shastra, then there is still a lot of questions to be answered.
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