What is vaastu

Vaastu means the dwelling of humans & Gods. Vaastu Shastra tells us how to build a house so as to be happy and prosperous. It is a traditional system of Architecture & Design of Vedic origin. Vaastu Vidyaa is one of the sixty-four identified ancient Indian Arts. Vaastu Shastra was brought to light by sages for the betterment and overall welfare of society because it is believed that affliction of Vaastu creates sorrows and disappointments. So houses, villages, towns and cities should be designed according to Vaastu. The principles of Vaastu are derived from Vaastu Purush Mandala; a man lying with his head-pointing North-East, in a grid of 64 squares dedicated to different Gods. It is believed that the world comprises of five basic and essential elements known as SPACE, AIR, FIRE, WATER & EARTH.
Vaastu sastra
=================
Our sages and saints in India always wanted to ensure the happiness and prosperity not only to mankind but to energy living being in this world.
They showed serious concern about the happiness and welfare of every one, with a view to ensure that people live in peace and harmony with prosperity, comforts and happiness enjoying health, wealth, wisdom and all the pleasures and comforts, they evolved various codes and stem for one living which are contained in on ancient scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads etc.
A person with health but without wealth and wisdom cannot achieve anything in life. A person with health and wealth but without wisdom to use it properly will only harm the society and humanity.
As astrology remains a speculative science than result oriented subject, the Vaastu Shastra is definite a result oriented science if laid down as per its norm would definitely give positive result.
The home, which man builds in his lifetime is really his DREAM HOUSE hence proper care has to be taken when the house/plot is purchased. Here he has to consult with Vaastu - Shastra. Construction of house as per vaastu leads to the happy and prosperous life.
Before discussing more about Vaastu Shastra, one has to go for the Nature, which consists of five elements Sky, Air, fire, Earth and Water. Vaastu is affected with positive power of three elements: the earth, the water, the fire (the sun). The Earth was formed about 460 crore years ago and it was a fiery ball. In due course of time, the rocks melted and the surface has formed and acquired magnetism due to the magnetic particles embedded within. It has two poles, North Pole and South Pole.
Sky is the endless space available on the universe. The universal concept of sky is beyond the imagination and reaches of human being as it is a never-ending eternal development.
The Air (Atmosphere) is composed of gases like oxygen, nitrogen, Carbon-di-oxide, helium, neon, crypton and vapour. Oxygen is life saving gas indispensable to living organism. The Water: Due to rainfall from clouds, water flowed into low-lying area of earth's surface and oceans were formed. The eternal water cycling is mystery of nature. The Sun: Sun plays a vital role in Vaastu Shastra. Which is source of life on earth and this is the reason why Sun is worshipped as an incarnation of god or the potential source of creation on the earth. Sun has vast source of heat generation. Due to the far distance from sun to earth, the earth receives only a fraction of the heat generated by sun and the same is sufficient for existence of living organism on earth. See the voluminous power of SUN the LIVING GOD!!



Vaastu Purush Mandal
=======================
Vaastu means : a surrounding, environment, matter or nature, (Prakriti in Sanskrit).Purush means : energy, work power, vigor or soul, (Shakti in Sanskrit).Mandal means : the astrological chart-which relates the layout to the orientation. The principles of orientation of building.
Vaastu-Purush-Mandal, the metaphysical plan of Vedic building, a temple or a site plan of a house. It is the intellectual foundation of the building. The surface of earth in traditional Indian Cosmology is regarded as demarcated by sunrise and sunset, by East and West, and also by North and South points, and is represented by a diagram or mandal of a square. Vaastu Purush and Mandal are equally important and significant. The Vaastu Purush Mandal is a sqaure which is its essential form and it takes its symbolism and significance from the square mandal of the earth and of the ecliptic and is therefore symbolical of recurrent cycles of time.
The science of architecture is a part of the science of luminaries.
The Vaastu had come to the place of adjustment of solar and lunar cycles. The number 32 of the divinities residing in the squares of the border of the Vaastumandal is also the sum of 4 and 28,the number of regents of the four planets who rule the equinoctial and solistical points referred to the cardinal points and of regents of 28 nakshatras (constellation). Each of the divisions in the mandal is called a pad and has a presiding deity associated with it.
The name Vaastu derived from Vaastu (Matter) a really existing thing, signifies residence as well as residue.The Vaastu Vidhaana (VIII-26-32) of Narad says that the Vaastu Purush Mandal is the magic diagram (yantra) and the form (roop) of the Vaastpurush. It is the body (sharir) and a bodily device (sharir yantra) by which those who have requisite knowledge attain the best results in the temple building.
In Purush, the celestial man, the supreme principle is seen. It is known by intellectual intuition as residing in man, the microcosm and in Universe, the macrocosm. Man and Universe are equivalent in this, their indwelling centre, of this equivalence the Purush is an image. Any place where this body lies down, where this plan is laid out by those who know it, exemplifies the presence of the Purush and its Bhoomi (Prakriti), the ground on which it rests.
The image of Vaastu Purush, one with mandal is drawn in the likeness of man. His head lays in the North-East in the mandal of 64 squares, the legs in the South-West, right hand in North-West, left hand in South-East and other parts of the body fill the square.
Forty-Five Gods or deities are constituent of the body of Vaastupurush, their number necessarily is the same in the mandal of 64,81 or any other number. Only the extent allotted to each of the deity differs but not their relative position in the plan.
The lord of central square is always the Lord of cosmos: Brahma and s attributed to the lord of wealth (Kuber), South to the lord of death (Yam), the East to the lord of light (Sun), the West to the lord of winds (Varun), suggesting that there be a courtyard in the center of the building. When these are scrupulously followed proper ventilation and good disposition to Sun and privacy is ensured. The house is compared with the human body and the central courtyard with Brahma, the eternal soul and their relationship is invoked when the grih-pravesh ceremony is performed with Vaastupuja and other traditional rituals.
This is the cosmological or metaphysical background on which the most fundamental doctrine of Vaastu-purush-mandal rests, and when Vaastu, Purush, and Mandal are brought together in a balanced manner the solution unquestionably relates to the place and the life style of the persons concerned ensuring certain minimum standards.
Western science is unwillingly to look at the physical and metaphysical are concurrently due to an intellectual conditioning that denigrates any kind of mixing up. In ancient India science, medicine, astrology, astronomy, mysticism, philosophy and spirituality lived in amiable juxtaposition, their boundaries overlapping and the enriching the other. Herein, in-fact lies its truth and freshness, a holistic sweep that allows us more than 2000-3000 years later to draw on perspectives that are missing in occidental science.