EARTH
Vastushastra refers to energy fields that govern the
EARTH. These energy fields can provide harmonious or
disturbed conditions and are believed to flow through
structures in a positive or negative manner having a
direct impact on the lives of those using these spaces.
In this context, the position of a plot, the direction
it faces, the layout of the ground plan of a building
and surrounding geographical features are crucial to
the activating energy fields.
As electricity has its electro-stress, similarly
these earth energies have their effect, which is termed
‘earth-stress’ or ‘geopathic stress’.
These are the result of phenomena emanating from planet
Earth itself, for it has its own electro-magnetic
grid. Through various studies, it has been discovered
that many cases of human illness and disease in animals,
plants and trees were related to underground fissures
and streams of water emitting energy vertically to
the surface. Unusually high levels of natural electric
currents occur where underground water fissures cross
at different levels. The earth energies emanating
in grids can be taken care of and healthy livable
zone can be provided. The use of latest instrument,
Lecher Antenna developed to measure these energies
makes the detection easier and planning healthier.
FIRE
FIRE – Summer – South - Red
Material : Plastics; animal materials Shape : Pointed
The Fire shape is revealed by sharp angles and points,
particularly of roofs, and is often found in the roofs
of certain temples, such as those of Thailand, where
monsoon rains make tall, sloping roofs almost mandatory,
although the spires of churches are also emblematic
of the Fire element. Throughout south-east Asia, it
is considered unlucky to build a house near a church,
partly because it is thought that, since people go
to church to rid themselves of evil, the evil forces
are likely to take up residence in the nearest available
dwelling, but also because it is thought that the
close proximity of the Fire element puts wooden buildings
under a constant threat of conflagration.
The fact that Fire is connected with chemical processes
suggests that the Fire element rules man-made materials,
although in former times no building materials –
apart, perhaps, from the leather tents of the nomads
– were considered as belonging to the Fire element.
Nevertheless, premises with sloping roofs –
perhaps the commonest type of construction, whether
domestic, civic, or industrial – were regarded
as being of the Fire element type.
The red color of Fire is the color of blood, so represents
livestock (animal life) as distinct from vegetable
life.
The Fire element is said to indicate intellect, and
Fire-shaped buildings would therefore be suitable
for libraries, schools, and other places of learning.
In commerce, design and fashion are possibilities.
More obviously, manufacturing processes involving
fore and furnaces, and less obviously, chemical processes,
are categorized as belonging to the Fire element type.
Livestock and (with metal) butchery are also classed
under the fire element.
In the home, the kitchen stove is the seat of the
Fire element.
SPACES
Healthy Spaces:
Aristotle defines space as a container of things
– a sort of succession of all – inclusive
envelopes, from what is ‘within the limits of
the sky’ to the very smallest, rather like Russian
dolls.
Space is, therefore, of necessity a hollow, limited
externally and filled up internally. There is no empty
space’. Everything has its position, its location,
and its plane.
In fact, for the architect the space or the gap between
ground, walls and ceiling is not nothingness, quite
the contrary : the very reason for his activity is
to create form to offer that hospitality and relative
freedom of movement, which people require.
People who study geometry and physics consider that
we live in a world of three dimensions of space.
The first dimension is symbolised by the line, the
second dimension by the plane, and the third dimension
by three-dimensional space. There is also the point.
The point symbolises zero dimensions. Why is it that
in geometry zero is not considered to symbolise a
dimension that is as distinct and as significant as
the other three dimensions, whereas in arithmetic
zero symbolises a distinction that is just as significant
as the other nine numbers ?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 10 (not 9) numbers !!
Yet
0 1 2 3 = 3 (not 4) dimensions ??
Geometry, and science that is based on geometry,
accepts as fundamental and absolute that we live in
a world wherein each dimension of space is infinite,
either infinitely small or infinitely large.
However, space is finite, and the human mind and
human language relate to space as being finite.
The most fundamental unit in geometry is the point.
The point is considered to exist, yet with zero dimensions
of existence. People can draw a point,
Point ==> .
The non-existent geometric point is the building
block of the one-dimensional geometric line. Again,
it is not possible to draw or otherwise create or
point out in nature an example of a geometric line,
as a geometric line can exist only in the mind.
The length of lines that people relate to in nature
is never infinitely large, but always has a finite
largeness, and the width and depth are never infinitely
small, but always have a finite smallness.
The geometric line is the building block of the geometric
plane. The plane is the building block of three-dimensional
geometric space. Nothing can exist in the real world
that does not exist in all three dimensions of space.
And yet, three-dimensional space has no more existence
and is no more real than zero, one, or two-dimensional
space. Why ?
All of space exists in time. Without time, there
can be no force, such as gravity, as force acts over
time. There can be no growth, or change, in things,
as change occurs over time. Without time, you could
not even be aware of the above point or line, as light
from the point and the line require time to reach
your eyes.
Without its relationship to time, there can be no
existence in space. Existence in space without existence
in time would be like the video recorder of life eternally
set to ‘pause’.
Modern physics now recognises three forms of dimensions.
There is the point, which is so defined as to exist
without any dimensions of existence. There are three
dimensions of space, and there is one dimension of
time.
Our Vedic Insight provides a beautiful hypothesis
of relationship of (time) (Kala) and Space. This leads
to basic principle of creation, i.e. sculpture, architecture,
music etc.
Space is the ultimate substance, which is filled
with minutest particles called Paramanu (nucleus).
Every paramanu is a minute space possessing energy.
It is absolute or abstraction of all visual and aural
phenomena of the universe or the ultimate form. The
space is luminous, as the particles are always emitting
light. This is called foetus or germ, the basic material
for the emergence of subtle forms in the micro as
well as macro spaces.
Every space possesses a unique quality of experiencing.
It is hypersensitive and super potential. For the
experience to take form, the space goes into self-spin.
It vibrates. The effortive force of the space is called
Kala, the absolute Time. This happens to be the intrinsic
property of space. This is contained in all animate
objects of nature. What is actually experienced by
the space is vibrated into a form within. This space
is sensitive enough to order these vibrations into
rhythms and to evolve itself into the desired forms—rhythmically
structured & aesthetically alluring. This is its
unique quality.
The nature follows certain rules and system. In quest
for discovering this aspect, the cosmogonic aspect
of measurement has been explored during the time of
the Vedas. The Vedic altar was reconstructed each
year near the time of vernal equinox as a symbolic
reconstruction of Prajapati, the year. Built of five
layers, representing the five seasons, five elements
and five directions, the altar was surrounded by a
wall of 360 bricks acknowledging that the year is
bounded by 360 days. The fired bricks symbolised the
elements of fire, earth, and water. The sun horse
provided the element of air by breathing upon the
bricks of the altar to bring them to life.
The importance of precise orientation and measurement
in construction of the Hindu temple reveals the cosmogonic
symbolism. The Sanskrit term referring to the temple,
vimana, means ‘well-measured’ or ‘well-proportioned’.
Texts on temple architecture give extensive discussions
of the system of proportional measurements and techniques
for determining true north.
In Sanskrit, ‘ma’ means to measure, to
give existence to a thing, to give it reality in our
world, and to demonstrate relationship. The words
maya, mother, matir and mater evidence the close connection
between measurement and creation, which come from
the same Sanskrit root. Measurement separates and
differentiates the elements of the world and thereby
creates them. The first act of measurement, which
occurred at the boundary between time and the timeless,
wrested the elements of our world from the continuum
of chaos. The ritual of measurement performed at the
time of establishment of temple or Vedic altar is
a re-enactment of creation of the world.
Purusa, identified with Viswakarma, the architect
of the universe, "bears the measuring rod (mana),
knows divisions, and thinks himself composed of parts."
The world has resulted from the division of his parts.
When laying out the design for a temple, the orientation
of the site is to be established at a time when the
sun is in the northern part of the sky, i.e., when
it is above the cosmic ocean, and on a day when there
are no sunspots disfiguring its visible surface. A
pillar, the gnomon, is erected and used to cast measured
shadows. At one level of meaning the gnomon represented
the God Indra who "pillared apart" and therefore
differentiated heaven and earth; the pillar supported
the heaven and steadied the earth. The yupa, the sacrificial
post, the lingam, the central pole of a tent used
for dance, and the tree of life are other examples
of sacred or ritual pillars. The stalk of the lotus
bearing Brahma, the four-faced creator of the universe,
is another cosmogonic pillar from which creation emanates.
The Indian gnomon is a remarkable union of technical
and ritual devices. It is placed in a square area,
which had to be "as smooth as a mirror",
checked with a water level. Around the gnomon is traced
a circle with a radius equal to the height of the
gnomon. In the simplest of approaches, two points
are marked on the circle where the shadow of the gnomon
touches it at mid-morning and mid-afternoon. A straight
line joins these two points, which is close to true
east west.
This method produces an alignment to the true cardinal
directions, which is only approximately accurate during
most of the year. Swinging between its winter and
southern extremes at the solstices, the sun moves
most rapidly at the equinoxes. At the time of vernal
equinox, for example, since the sun moves northward
between mid-morning and mid-afternoon, the eastern
point, produced by the afternoon shadow is shifted
slightly southward of the western point.
The line connecting the two points would thus be
tilted south of east in the spring and north of east
in the fall.
Brahmagupta (born AD 598) is credited with the first
recorded recognition of this defect of the method,
although he did not give a formula for correction.
Sripati (born AD 1039) was the first who successfully
versified the formula, and after him the formula apparently
became common knowledge among Indian architects and
astronomers.
Not just temples, but cities in India have been built
with precise measurement. The greatest of medieval
cities of India, Vijayanagara, echoes the symbolic
seriousness of careful measurement. In Vijayanagara
there are multiple levels of meaning contained in
the axis, some of which may be related to our theme
of cosmogony and the elements.
To draw an analogy between the structure of the human
body and spaces is tempting, as much for aesthetics
as for symbolic reasons. In our subjective representation
of the order of the universe, it is not the atom but
our body, which is the primordial element of reference.
It is our way to measure big and small, geometric
or amorphous, hard and soft, narrow and wide, strong
and weak. A healthy human body appears balanced to
us. It is a whole to which nothing more can be added;
we can dress or decorate it, but cannot add a third
arm, or extend a leg. Our sense of beauty is probably
linked to the form of our body.
In the history of space designing, attempts to ‘humanise
the architectural body’ have been as numerous
as those, which have sought to ‘geometrise the
human body. Discovering the rules of proportion between
the parts of the human body, which would guide measurement
in designing of spaces, is a part of this approach.
Even if it is rather ‘squaring the circle’
to try divide the human body into whole numbers, or
contain it within simple geometric figures. Such as
circle and the square, we cannot ignore centuries
of effort.
Harmony in living bodies is a result of the counterbalancing
of shifting masses: the Cathedral is built from the
example of living bodies. Its concordances, its equilibrium’s
are exactly in the order of the nature, they originate
in general laws. The great masters who raised these
marvellous monuments were men of sciences and they
were able to apply it, because they have drawn it
from its natural, primitive sources, and because it
remained alive in them.
Spaces don’t seem permanent anymore. And the
designed spaces seem to be blooming in the wind, like
the seasons, fortunes and other such ‘isms’
in a state of cyclic flux.
In the midst of last century’s breakdown of
ideologies, disorder seems to be further aggravated
as people tread the information highway towards uncharted
fields of knowledge. In the ensuing spiritual vacuum,
myths and mysticism compound the confusion feeding
on people’s insecurities of an uncertain future.
After all, the curtain came down on the modern architecture
precisely at 3.32 p.m., as thereabouts on July 15,1972,
when the infamous Pruitt Iqoe scheme in St. Louis
Missouri, was dynamited. Post-modernism was born,
in a return to classical orders from the past, with
‘cut and paste’ consumer concoctions,
off history’s shelves A house is a machine to
live in with walls as smooth as sheet iron, with windows
those of factories, or a tool as serviceable as typewriter.
If architecture today is so rigid, then the statement
of building a house, which was a sacred act and the
house was considered a living organism can only become
the matter of discussion. What we need today is a
perfect Manifestation of our old heritage i.e.; Vedic
Architecture (Vastu) and the space which suites today’s
context, thus the emergence of Vastutecture as a need.
Thus to make architectural design more and more perfect
we architects should start following Vastutecture
and sufficient thought must be given to the subtle
energy fields, grids and zones within and around the
forms and building which would help the design of
spaces to grow as per the energy moulds.
The concept of Vastushastra (energy manifestation)
and space creation together as Vastutecture can have
enormous impact on our entire outlook on health and
healing.
Following Vastutecture or Vastu Spaces may not add
years to our life, but definitely it will add life
to our remaining years.
