East is for fame, prosperity and vitality

By Pt R K Sharma

Till now I have discussed the energy aspect of vaastu in this column. This time, I will try to explain how different deities are fixed for each direction related to a piece of land or a plot.

We know that the east direction is for fame and vigour. It is presided by the sun—surya of the navagraha. In Vedic astrology, the sun is the ruler of fame and vitality of the native. The stronger is one’s sun, the higher one goes in life. The higher you go the more visible you become to the world and the world looks up to you. Most of the conquistadors and monarchs have their sun very strongly placed. Many apostles like Swami Vivekananda had his sun very strongly placed in the horoscope.


FAME IS ASSOCIATED WITH EAST

According to vaastu, the sun resides over the east direction. Hence, whosoever has an open and long east-facing plot shall gain fame and vitality and shall also remain free from diseases as sun heals many ailments.

Now let me discuss the logical explanation to this. The east is where the sun rises. In the morning the level of ionisation is very high in the atmosphere. The sun’s rays come slanting in these hours and are believed to bring this ionisation. Hence, the atmosphere is filled with what we call negative ions, which are very good for health and vitality. Negative ions make us alert and energise our chakras. Our aura grows in exposure to them.


NEGATIVE IONS BLESS THE EAST

On the contrary, if the east direction of a plot is closed then one does not get adequate exposure to these negative ions. In the morning when the sun’s rays are slanting, their efficacy creates strong ionisation. That is why it helps to take a good walk at the daybreak. Our own customs of offering water to the rising sun—surya namaskar and Gayatri sadhana are based on the same fact.

Negative ions make our neurohormones very alert and trigger an overall effect of wellbeing. They fill us with masculine energy. If your aura is positive and you are filled with vigour and masculine energy, then you are bound to leave an impact wherever you go. Diseases keep at bay and one becomes very active. Our aura becomes so powerful that no malice or ill-fame can touch us. Hence, in order to achieve fame, freedom from disease and ill-repute, and develop courage and optimism one should keep the east direction as much vaastu compliant as possible.


POSITION OF MAIN ENTRANCE

The adjacent chart shows the position where the gates or the main entrance can be placed in the east direction and also the concomitants if the gates are not placed properly.

Often I am asked, “Is vaastu based on mere energy lines or it is really some kind of superconscious science?” In other words, are the deities ascribed to every direction real or are they just points of references. Our Vedic tradition believes that there are more realms where deities exist in their own rights and that we are in touch with these forces. We might not know about this but we are in touch. These forces are also in touch with us. As one goes higher in the ladder of creation, deities become more and more powerful.

At least four thousand years before Eeinstein wrote his version of relativity, our rishis knew that time is relative. The dieties who are supposed to dwell in the realm called heaven live in a different time zone. That is why their one-day constitute our one entire year.


THE DIETY OF THE EAST

They are more powerful as well. Every deity is responsible and governs a specific hidden force of nature. Indra is the master of thunder, Varuna is the hurdle breaker, Agni presides over the element of fire, and so on. Similarly, every deity is given a specific direction to rule over. According to Vedic tradition our realm has 10 directions: north, east, west, south, north-east: Ishaan, south-east: Agneya, south west: Naitritya, north-west: Vayavya, akash: heaven or zenith, and pataal: Netherlands or nadir.
Out of these the sun of the navagraha rules the east.


East
9      Shikhi...........Brings sorrow, loss and proneness to fire outbreak.
10    Parjanya.......Drain of wealth and bereavement
11    Jayanta.........Brings wealth
12    Indra............Felicitations by government
13    Surya...........Leads to an increase in anger in behaviour
14    Satya...........Theft, tendency to lie
15    Bhrush.........Gives rise to cruelty, anger and absence of progeny
16    Antariksha....Fear of theft and loss
 

VAASTU IN YOUR BRAIN

The symmetrical designs of the grid cells in our brain match our inner symmetry expressed in the form of Yantra and the designs of vaastu. By living in vaastu compliant environment and by following a tested code of conduct and lifestyle, we can bring more and more of our outer experiences to resonate with our inner symmetry. And the more we do so the nearer we come towards excellence and perfection, says PT R K SHARMA

Science, being rated as the biggest single find in neuroscience so far, is inching towards a new euphoric conclusion with the recent discovery of grid cells in and around the hippocampus (the part of the brain that registers short-term memories). Short-term memories like the things one experiences throughout the day are then passed on to another area in the brain called the neo-cortex.

Scientists now believe that much of our ‘worldly’ dreams are made of chemical ‘triggers’ that are fired when the hippocampus reconstructs our day-to-day experiences to the neo-cortex and other specific regions associated with long-term memory. These experiences form many of our ‘worldly’ dreams. However, this does not suggest that all dreams are composed in the same manner. There are times just before waking up when the ‘about-to-rise’ mind forgets the barrier between reality and what is being dreamt. For example, suppose you are dreaming about a sequence where you and your relatives are sitting and conversing together, suddenly you find another person (whom you know eventually) enter the arena and join the conversation. You suddenly find the conversation drifting away from the topic in your dream to some absolutely unique area. Then suddenly you wake up to see that the discussion plus/minus the original topic and issues of your dream being played in the real world. In most such cases, the persona and the topic drifted from the main subject is the main ingredient of the reality you wake up to. How would you explain this situation?


DREAMY CONCLUSIONS

We can explain the situation as such—what was happening in the dream at the time (time kept in an ordinary clock, psychological time, or Einstein’s relative time) was lost. That is why the experiences you had yesterday, which were transferred from the short-term memory, got mingled with what your awakening brain was receiving at that moment. This, however, needs a lot more research to come to a final conclusion.

Another explanation can be—the part of the brain which receives and conveys our experience gets its feedback from the outer world almost directly. This part can be the neo-cortex and other regions associated with long-term memory.

Neuroscience accepts that our long-term memory registers events not in the temporal sequence but in the intensity of the experiences. Hence, it can be asserted that if an experience we had, maybe, 30 years ago, is strong enough in its intensity to surpass the intensity of an experience of yesterday, then such an old experience is more influential and can force to shape our conditioned behaviour.

We all have some conditioning. A couple of decades ago there mushroomed some ‘pop philosophies’, which suggested to eliminate all our conditionings— good or bad—to get freedom from thoughts, wrongly mentioned as ‘enlightenment’—if we can compare that with Budhdhatva. Even Buddha had a positive conditioning—to eliminate suffering of others. Good or bad, a conditioning is what separates us from others, gives us an identity and a platform to work upon ourselves and the world. Dropping the conditioning does not lead us anywhere. It is like an ostrich ducking its head inside the sand just before a huge sandstorm, thinking that might save him from the sandstorm.


MAKING OF DREAMS

Our subliminal dreams or the ones at the surface are comprised of information taken from our short-term experience passing from one centre of the brain (broadly the hippocampus) to more stable ones (like the neo-cortex). We also notice that there are pathways in the brain which defy psychological time and relative time to merge with chemical firings to weave new stories which are real (while we are inside a dream) and become a dream while we are awake.

Interestingly, Vedic knowledge, the knowledge from the Upanishad, and the six systems of darshan (records of higher experiences, and glimpses and visions of our sages and seers) aver that the world and our experiences while we are awake are nothing but a part of a bigger dream. There are people who, after waking up from this worldly sleep, can explain the ephemeral nature of the worldly experiences during a dream. The first thing that comes in our mind is that, if we call it a dream then it falls short of being absolute reality. But if reality is the cause of this dream then reality falls short of being real and gets limited. Just like a drop of oil can spoil a tumbler full of milk, similarly, if reality gives birth to dreams, then does reality exist?

Usually, we think that when purity embraces impurity it becomes impure as well. But this notion is wrong. Between purity and impurity, whichever is stronger it transforms the other. For example, research being done on Ganga water suggests that they can bring down the toxicity level of many potentially harmful pathogens and molecules and sometimes can turn them into benign forces. This is one of the reasons cited by scientists for explaining the fact that Ganga water never decayed till half a century ago when preserved for years together.

Hence, if reality is like the Ganga water, then our limited experiences are ephemeral and limited only till they are asleep and till they are dreaming. The moment we are awake, the dreams become limited, and they are no more ephemeral.


SYMMETRICAL GRID CELLS

Let’s come back to the discussion about the new finding of the grid cells. At a generalised level, the grid cells create a network, which is very symmetrical, geometrically perfect, and well structured. Now what is this network of grid cells?

Consider a toy car that runs on its own but avoids getting toppled when it comes to the edge of something, say a table. There are simpler ones that bump into anything that comes in their way and then turn around or go back and start going in another direction till the time they bump against another obstruction and changes its direction again. But the first car changes its direction before bumping against any object.

Now let’s compare these cars with a vacillating thought or even the trajectory of one’s life experiences. Our thought process usually goes on and on till we bump into an ‘error’ and change the direction of our thoughts. If we scan an average individual’s life, we see that most of our energies are infested in maintaining an illusion—ego. By ego we not only mean false pride or ignorance, it is sustenance of our individual entity. It can be survival and maintains our feelings, emotions and, of course, our self-esteem, which takes us towards higher goals.


LONG & SHORT-TERM MEMORY

This symmetrical grid in our brain is hexagonal and accurately structured. It is being seen that the brain does not get shaped by our day-to-day experiences; it is the symmetry in our brain that shapes our experiences. For example, there are cells which fire (discharge electricity) when we navigate the world out there. These chemical firings get their way to the short-term memory through the hippocampus. When we sleep these chemical firings get reconstructed and gradually get transferred to our long-term memory. Usually, the most ordinary experiences like having breakfast or taking shower do not make any mark in our memory because they have already done their bit by building up our basic conditioning. For example, when you are marooned in a secluded place it is only then that you might remember your toothbrush in the morning. But in general, whenever there is a weird experience it cuts a scratch in our psyche for good or bad.

Why does this happen? One nearest explanation is that the grid that is found in the brain guides our experiences. Whenever we go overboard to interact with the world out there, some chemical firings take place, which finally form our long-term memory. These memories shape our personality by piling layer over layer of conditioning.


VAASTU & GRID CELLS

Now consider the Sri Yantra, Star of David, Jewish Tree of Life and the Great Pyramid. Interestingly, all these share a commonality with the grid cells’ symmetry. The symmetries of vaastu are placed above these details that are found in the outer world. But then where does this symmetry lie in nature? These grids are like a map at a level above biological and chemical details. Hence, they lie at the level of electricity—at the level of discharge potential—as medical science would call it. Hence, when you are navigating this world, (read meeting any person, talking to your beloved, reading newspaper or even appreciating the waves at the shore), these cells fire as and when their inner symmetry comes to resonate with your experiences in the outer world. And when they cannot meet the symmetry, they form abnormal recordings.

But who is coordinating between the experiences out there and your memories that are being formed, which eventually shape your personality? It is electricity. Whenever a cell fires, the firing might be at the chemical and eventually at the biological level, but the cause is the electric signal that gets triggered by a set of neuronal networking. Hence, whether we are aware or not our behaviours and psyche get affected by the surroundings and the experiences we go through in the world.

And what more! Our experiences that shape our behaviours can shape our future events as well. So what do we see here as happening? To start with, we have a grid of symmetry in our brain, which is triggered when we meet experiences that resonate with the grid. Hence, when the asymmetrical world out there and our interaction with such experiences meet with the standards, the brain is born, which shapes our memory and conditions our behaviours.

Most interesting is the fact that the experiences we get when we meet this symmetry, when we fall short of meeting this symmetry, and when we go beyond this symmetry—they shape the future course of our action and that of the universe’s behaviour with us.

Vibrations in the brain give us an inborn sense of symmetry, leading to our experiences forming our memory and finally shaping our behaviour. Our behaviour then shapes our future course of action and the way the universe would behave with us.

Now we see that by concentrating on the symmetrical designs that match our inner symmetry like the Yantra, living in vaastu compliant environment, and by following a tested code of conduct and lifestyle, we bring more and more of our experiences to resonate with our inner symmetry. And the more we do so the nearer we come towards excellence and perfection.