Optimizing Space Energy through Vastu Vedic Architecture

From Sick Building to Building for Wellness
We’ve all heard of "sick building syndrome" by now. So, how about "well building syndrome!" How far can we take architecture and the built environment in this direction? This article is going to explore a subtle and expansive view of "green building", and how it might be possible to blend human consciousness, the built environment, and the greater environment into a synergistic whole – a spiritual/holistic/integrous architecture, as it were. We call this architecture Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture.

Creating Maximum Vitality in Our Living Space
What are we trying to get from architecture – certainly not just a "roof over our head". We would like to feel that life and relationships will prosper in the space we inhabit. This is the purpose of Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture. It’s all about creating a living space that has maximum "vitality" – has a "consciousness" that can fully support and nourish ours.

Inputs from Ancient Spiritually-Centered Architecture and Modern Psycho-Physiology
We shall explore how recent discoveries in psycho-physiology and an ancient architectural science of building and city design from the Vedic (ancient Indian) culture have come together to provide a design and construction system that promises to create space in which our potential for progress and growth – our spiritual advancement – may blossom fully.

The Power of Attention
A wise man once noted that whatever we put our attention on, its influence (its energy) will grow stronger and more potent in our life. Attention is always flowing out of us toward the environment. We spend so much time these days in, or interacting with, some part of the man-made environment – putting our attention consciously or unconsciously on it – that it is even more pressing to get the most out of our relationship with our surrounding man-made space.

The Continuous Impact of the Built Environment on Our Consciousness
The influence of architectural space is truly insidious. For good or bad it is quietly working its influence over us since we spend so much time in it, involved, one could say, with it. We hope to show how Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture offers a systematic way of optimizing the influence on us of the built environment.

Ancient Vedic Culture, the Self, and Nature’s Intelligence
Many eons ago, the Rishis or "Seers" of the Vedic culture of ancient India came out with simple yet profound truths about the man-environment relationship and how to make it prosper. [Note: for the interest of our readers, Sanskrit words – Sanskrit being the language of the Vedic culture – are placed after the English definition.]

They basically observed that at the source of our thoughts, deep within the mind, we can contact the source of nature’s creativity. They called this area of life the "Self" (in English, Self with a capital "S") or Atma, and they went on to say that every individual’s Atma is totality – Brahman. All beings and structures of matter and energy in the universe share a common energetic source.

Integrous Vastu Architecture – Optimizing the Relationship between Man and Nature
Let’s apply this insight and cognition to architecture. Let’s get this common spiritual source and the principles governing its intelligence to "design" the space we live in and actively permeate it. This way we can always be one with that influence – unlimited energy, creativity, and intelligence. Integrous Vastu Vedic architecture is a design system that has come down from the insights and experience of the Vedic Rishis – ancient and modern.

Insights from Quantum Physics on the Source of Creation
Interestingly, modern quantum physics is also coming to a similar conclusion regarding the nature of the foundations of our physical universe. Deep inside every grain of physical existence at the Planck scale (a very small distance size of 10 to the minus 33 centimeters, that is 1 divided by the number 1 with 33 zeros after it parts of a centimeter) all the force and matter fields of nature are unified. This is the source of all of nature’s energy and creativity. From or within this unified field, the universe as we see it unfolds.

Films that Explore the Basis of Nature’s Intelligence and Human Consciousness
A recent film "What the Bleep Do We Know?" explored these ideas in modern language and caught the public imagination. Another fascinating view is the PBS series "The Elegant Universe" with superstring theorist Brian Greene.

The Relationship between Consciousness, the Body, and the Environment
Getting back to the Vedic Rishis, they were in touch with this unified field within their inner space – their minds. By getting to know their own inner space intimately, and its source, they were able to come to useful conclusions about the outer space of the body and environment, and how to link these inner and outer spaces positively so that we can fully enjoy the world we find ourselves in. From their deep meditations, the whole system of Yoga came out – the target always being to get the most out of life by developing our full potential.

The Vedic Goal of Life – Yoga: Union with Cosmic Intelligence – Enlightenment
They considered that full human potential was achieved when human consciousness is fully identified (24/7) with that totality of nature’s intelligence and its formidable cosmic organizing power! All desires – Kama, codes of ethical behavior – Dharma, amassment of resources or wealth – Artha, are aimed at this target, they said. A human soul fully resonant with this cosmic intelligence, this unified field, they called liberated, free – enlightened. We shall see how Integrous Vastu Architecture offers an environmental or living framework in which human prosperity can flourish and human consciousness may even achieve true unboundedness, freedom, liberation – Moksha.

Vedic "Technologies" for Mind, Body, Health, and Environment
All the technologies that have come out from the tradition of knowledge brought to light so long ago by the Vedic Rishis have always had as their bottom line this goal of full human blossoming. Yoga is for that, AyurVeda – the Vedic health care system – is for that, and Vastu – Vedic architecture (also called Sthapatya Veda and VastuVidya) – is for that. We could even call Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture an environmental health-care system – optimizing space energy for clearer thinking, feeling, perception and holistic or integrous action.

Self-Realization through Designing Enlightening Spaces
Imagine: creating a space to live in that will spontaneously keep you in touch with who you are deep inside – the unified field.

Is It Worth the Effort Designing according to Vastu principles?
Well, it all sounds good in theory, but how can we know if it is worth the effort to apply the principles of building design laid out in the Vedic texts – the Vastu Shastras. Let’s look at some of these principles at this point.

Examples of Vastu Principles in Building Design

• Buildings should be oriented to the cardinal directions for best and harmonious influence, with doors only to East and North. Doors to the South should be avoided at all cost
• Sunrise with respect to a Vastu building should not be delayed more than a few minutes due to topographical features (such as hills etc.)
• Building sites should be flat or sloping down to the East, North East or North, but not sloping down in other directions
• Bodies of Water should be to the East, North East or North
• Vastu buildings should not be near graveyards, places of public entertainment/meeting, bars, slaughterhouses, nor near pylons and the high tension electric cables they are carrying (this last insight coming from the "modern" Rishis).

The Challenge of Creating Truly Spiritual Space
So many principles, all to create living spaces that will make life flourish. The challenge is finding suitable sites that fulfill all the conditions, and this is all in addition to the actual integrous design of Vastu buildings (involving often more than a thousand mathematical and geometric specifications and computations that require many decisions in their fine tuning). The modern Vastu architects can apply the various principles to the best of their traditional knowledge, with faith, but is the final design really able to deliver the promised effects?

Assistance from the Research of Dr. David Hawkins
Here the work of a modern psychiatrist should be mentioned – Dr. David Hawkins, MD, PhD. He showed that the simple kinesiological principle that the body reacts to a statement of truth by being strong and to a statement that is false by becoming weak could be used to develop a scale of consciousness. This scale of consciousness, or measure of energy, can be applied to validating the "truth" and effectively the energy of any "thing", be it an abstract idea, a person, a building – anything really.

The Kinesiological Response – Evaluating Energy and Consciousness
He found in his research that the kinesiological response of the human musculature was not a localized response involving just the body-mind of the tester but was the localized expression of the response of the entire field of universal consciousness (the unified field of nature’s energy). His books are a great read and provide a fertile ground for scientific research in the future for serious scientists (and skeptics) who wish to explore the mind-body-environment connection.

Applying Kinesiology to Optimize the Influence of Living Space
Applied to architecture, we immediately have a way of testing if land and environment is appropriate for development or redevelopment, and how its energy or consciousness tallies with the needs of the client. We now have a practical tool to evaluate how effective a building or space, and the land it occupies, might be in supporting the life of the inhabitants.

We also now have a way of not just following tradition in "blind faith" but a way of measuring how specific Vastu principles and computations can optimize the living space – the space energy. We even have a method of deciding which tradition of Vastu or any architectural system, for that matter, would prove the most appropriate for a particular time, place, and client.

The "Feel" of Vastu and Evaluating Space Energy
One can feel the nourishing effect of a Vastu building with an East or North entrance. One can certainly evaluate the energy or "consciousness" of the space within the building via the Scale of Consciousness and kinesiology. But these subjective measures can also be tested via objective scientific research – yet to be done.

Scientific Research on Vastu Principles
One can perform research on how Vastu can improve the quality of life by taking, for example, just one principle of Vastu: auspicious door entrances. Take a city laid out on a North-South East-West road grid and see if the people using the South entrances and West entrances of their homes and offices are having a harder time in life (through appropriately designed questionnaires) compared to people with North and East entrances.

Summary
In this first article, we have explored the relationship between the space we live in and the unified field of nature’s intelligence, energy, and power. We have talked about how it might be possible to entrain that energy into our living space and lives via an ancient system of spiritual architecture called Vastu or Vedic Architecture. Principles of Vastu – Vedic Architecture – are joined with kinesiological methods numerically evaluating the energy or consciousness of buildings (through the Scale of Consciousness developed by Dr. David Hawkins) to create a modern holistic architectural system. This system is called in this article "Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture". Thus, we have a basic way of constructively tuning the built environment to both the outer space of our environment and the inner space of our mind and personal consciousness. In this way, architecture can promise to expand our life towards the state of full human potential called enlightenment.

More articles will follow going more deeply into the principles of Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture.

References

Scale of Consciousness
Research by Dr. David Hawkins, MD, PhD
VeritasPub.com

Superstrings
A quantum mechanical theory of the unified field
PBS.org

Leading Vastu Architect in the Tamil Tradition of India
An Introduction to Ganapati Sthapati
TamilNation.org

Leading Vastu Architect in the Kerala Tradition of India
An Introduction to Kanippayyur Krishnan Namboothiripad
KeralaTourism.org

Vastu Texts
Vedic architectural background reading by modern authors
ChooseTeacher.com

Vastu in the News
The Return of the Temple Arts
HinduismToday.com

Integrous Vastu Vedic Architecture
info@IntegrousVastuArchitecture.com