Vaastu A Path to Harmonious Living

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From the Jacket:

Vaastu, in a nutshell, is the traditional science of building design and spatial configuration. The individual as well as the collective can live in greater harmony and prosperity when human beings become aware of the subtle connections between space and form. To become aware of the natural environment and to build in consonance with it is the message of vaastu. The science presupposes the psycho-spiritual connection of Indian mythology with human existence. Using the principles of measurement, rhythm and proportion as the basis of all material manifestation, it avers that the mind and the spirit are capable of infusing life into a space and promoting the free flow of energy.

Vasstu: A Path to Harmonious Living provides insights design concepts that can help the user to maximize his potential within his/her environment. Interspersed with graphic descriptions, the author shows the reader how to improve health, increase spiritual growth and promote creativity, prosperity and success in life.

About the Author:

Sashikala Ananth is one of India's foremost vaastu consultants, authors and teachers. An architect by profession, she studied vaastu for 10 years and started an architectural consultancy called Vadivam which was focuses on developing a unique metaphor of design which is situated to contemporary Indian lifestyles, while imbibing the principles of traditional design. Her experiences in the field of vaastu shilpa led to the making the film A Shilpi Speaks, which won the National Award for Culture in 1991. She has successfully executed designs based on vaastu for factories, residences, offices, temples, flats and hotels. Interest and a growing belief in vaastu in the West has taken to her Austria, UK and USA to conduct seminars.

Her book The Penguin Guide to Vaastu has give vaastu its rightful place as an established science that is applicable in the contemporary context.

The Pandavas stood at the edge of the land called Indraprastha and in their mind rose the city of their dreams with palaces, houses, market places, gardens, pools, temples and offices. The beautiful cityscape embellished with flags and shikharas of the taller buildings, the colours of the walls, the ornaments and sculptures on the gopurams, the coolness of the gardens, the wonderful fragrance of the flowers abounding in the pleasure groves, the bustle of a happy populace going about its business - all moved through the mind's eye of Yudhishthira. He realised this great dream with the help of wonderfully skilful architects and craftsmen. The sabha for the special functions proudly displayed glorious paintings on the wails, semi-precious stones glittering here and there, water bodies with lilies and lotuses, fountains and illusions of openings and steps. From this dream was created the marvellous city of Indraprastha whose great fame spread far and wide and is spoken of even to this day.

Descriptions of the marvellous cities of ancient India abound in the travelogues of Huien Tsang and Fa Hien. The Puranas refer to the cities ofKasi, Hastinapura, Ayodhya, Dwaraka, Kanchi, Vijayanagar, Ujjain and Lanka. The Tamil texts of the Sangam period extol cities such as Rameswaram, Madurai, Kanchi, Srirangam, Kaveripumpattinam, Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai and Kalahasti. The beauty of the palaces, ornamentation of the temples, size of the roads with their street lights, shop fronts and aesthetic streetscapes are described in great detail. Settlement design and the allocation of facilities was an ancient wisdom and even today, some older towns boast of an order, aesthetics and spiritual serenity that these settlements exemplified. In spite of grotesque modern additions and unplanned extensions and changes in existing buildings, the atmosphere that prevails in the ancient cities and towns of Kasi, Kanchi, Tiruvanandapuram, Kumbakonam, Srirangam, Mysore, Kalahasti and Tiruvannamalai is extraordinarily uplifting to the casual visitor. This book is an exploration of the conceptual base and the physical manifestation of the great dreams of our ancients: this is an exploration of the anubhava or experience as it manifests itself into the physical field as mano shilpam ormano rupam (or the product of a mental vision). For the created form to be invested with the grandeur and beauty of the vision, it is important that many people should share the dream. The craftsmen, the designer and the builder must be evoked on the same wavelength. The occupants must comprehend and share the symbolism and the beauty of the process of creation. The collective space must reflect the ascension and the upliftment of the common dream. Every part of the finished product must hold within it the mysticism and the inspiration of the primary substance (parauastu). The connection between the part and the whole must endlessly sublimate the individual spirit so that it may eternally refine itself and bring to fruition the quest for the 'other'.

The connectedness, the order, the shared dream, the sublimation of the individual part, the keeping alive of the larger quest, and the constant shaping of the physical as it recreates the spiritual urges these are all part of the Indian heritage. I have made an attempt to verbalise it in the journey through this book to discover the quintessence of traditional design.