Vastu Remedies Without Demolition: An Honest Guide

Almost every home fails some Vastu rule. That is not a flaw in the homes. It is a fact about a set of conventions written for freestanding houses on their own plots, applied to buildings of every shape on land that nobody chose for the purpose. The question that follows is what a reasonable person does about it.

This page answers in the tone the rest of this section uses. A reading of a home is not a verdict. No defect is an emergency. There is usually nothing to fix, and where there is something, it can almost always be done without spending money and without touching a wall. This page also says plainly what a person should be wary of.

What the classical texts themselves ask for

It is worth looking at what the old texts recommend, because it is not what the modern remedy industry sells.

The Brihat Samhita’s chapter on house-building is full of ritual. The builder honours the deities of the site with cakes, curd, coloured rice, sandal paste, flowers and incense, honours the Brahmins and the craftsmen and satisfies them with gifts (53.99). The first stone is laid with care in the north-east (53.112). The entrance is to be made with ceremony, with water pots, fruit, flowers and curd (53.82). The house is entered after worship, with flowers and festoons and the chanting of hymns (53.125). The Manasara, in Acharya’s summary, has a whole chapter of offerings to each of the deities of the ground, and another on the first entry into the house.

The same texts also give practical cures of a different kind. The text says a person who cannot cut down a troublesome tree should plant good trees between (53.87). It says an obstruction more than twice the height of the house away from the gate does no harm (53.76). It says that what lies buried at the vital points, the marmasthalas, should be kept from disturbance (53.57), and that the centre should be cared for (53.66).

Two things are absent from the verses read for this site. There is no demolition: nowhere did we find an instruction to break a wall, move a door or rebuild a room because it stood in the wrong pada. And there is no object: no pyramid, crystal, mirror, salt bowl, copper strip, yantra or statue recommended as a cure. These are modern additions. That does not make them wrong, and it does not make them classical.

Free and gentle steps

These are in the order in which a sensible person might try them. None costs more than a little time.

• Clear the threshold. Keep the entrance clean, dry, lit and free of obstruction. It is good housekeeping and it is closest in spirit to the text’s concern with the gate.
• Keep the centre open. Not bare, simply uncluttered, with light and air. The Brihat Samhita asks that Brahma’s part be kept clean (53.66).
• Sleep head south or east. The one directional rule for the bed that has a classical verse (53.124). Move the bed out from under a heavy exposed beam, which is worth doing in any case.
• Stove and sink. Put the flame and the water apart, and if the room allows, the stove towards the south-east of the kitchen. See the kitchen.
• A quiet place for worship. A shelf or a corner, clean and calm, is what the tradition most consistently asks for. See the puja room.
• Order and air. Open the windows, remove what is broken and unused, fix the leak. These are not Vastu in a technical sense. They are what a home needs.
• A house-warming. If you have not had one, a simple worship and a shared meal on moving in is the most classical remedy there is, and the one most people find meaningful.

What to be wary of

A consultant is not an adversary, and many are sincere. But some of what is sold under the name of Vastu has more to do with commerce than tradition, and the following patterns are worth recognising.

Fear. A reading that tells you a room will cause illness, a business will fail or a marriage will break is not reading the classical texts, which describe results in the vocabulary of a household of the sixth century and do not threaten. If a person frightens you, that is the reason to stop.

Guarantees. No text promises a result from moving a door or placing an object. “Guaranteed” is a word a reading should never use.

Demolition. A request to break a wall, shift a kitchen or rebuild a toilet is expensive, disruptive and possibly unsafe. Any structural change should come from an engineer’s advice about the building, not from a compass. None of the verses read here asks for it.

Products. A yantra, a pyramid, a crystal, a pot of salt, a strip of copper: none is in the texts read for this site, and all are modern additions. Many practitioners use them, and some people find one a helpful focus. They are optional. Nothing has to be bought for a home to be set right, and no object replaces the free steps above; be wary of anyone who says otherwise.

A verse you cannot find. The simplest test is to ask which text says so, and in which verse. A sincere person will tell you where it is from, or say that it is a modern convention. A person who cannot answer is selling something other than tradition.

Questions worth asking any consultant

• Which text and which verse does this come from, or is it a modern convention?
• Does this apply to a flat, or to a house on its own plot?
• What will it cost, and is there a free alternative?
• Is there anything you are recommending that involves building work, and has an engineer said it is safe?
• What do you not know?

The last is the most useful. A tradition as varied as this one has plenty that nobody knows for certain, and a person who says so has read more than one who does not.

Gemstones and other Jyotish remedies

Jyotish has its own remedies, mantra, fasting, charity and, for some, gemstones. They belong to the birth chart and not to the house, and this site treats them with the same care: they are a valid part of the tradition, suggested only when a chart calls for one and never pushed. The birth chart article says more about how the two subjects relate.

When the worry is bigger than the house

If a house has become a source of anxiety, it is worth asking where the anxiety is coming from. A home that seems to be going wrong may reflect a health problem, a financial one or a strained relationship, and these are best met directly. See a doctor for health, a planner or adviser for money, and someone you trust for the rest. A Vastu reading is not a replacement for any of them. In India, Tele-MANAS is a free mental health helpline on 14416, available round the clock in more than twenty languages.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita, chapter 53, verses 57, 66, 76, 82, 87, 99, 112 and 125. English translation by N. Chidambaram Iyer (1884) at wisdomlib.org, compared with V. Subrahmanya Sastri (1946), scanned at archive.org.
• Prasanna Kumar Acharya, Summary of the Manasara, chapter 8 (offerings) and chapter 37 (first entry into the house).
• That no demolition and no object is recommended is a finding about the texts read for this site, which were the Iyer and Sastri translations of the Brihat Samhita chapter and Acharya’s summary of the Manasara. The Mayamata and later manuals were not available and may say more.
• The questions to ask a consultant are this site’s own suggestions.