Moving into your own home is always filled with happiness, and the thought of the beautiful memories one will make in one’s own house will fill anyone with joy. We all still relish our homes where we spent our childhood; whether we live in a new city or a different continent, the house we grew in, is one of the fondest memories we hold in our hearts.

When I reached the milestone of getting into my own home that too in a different continent (Dallas US) amidst the pandemic this year, there was great joy and expectations in all of us.

We were excited. I was constantly thinking about how will I style my house, what color will adorn the walls, what kind of storage I will have, and my kitchen gadgets. It was more like my house was an extension of me, rather the best version of myself. Just as I was immersed in this sweet stressful journey, one of our neighbors visited my house. She met me for the first time and the conversation with her, which would have barely lasted for 10 minutes, left me in a fright.

If you are wondering whether the conversation was about me. Believe me, no, was it about the styling of the house? Nah, she instead had a lot to tell me about the Vaastu of the house. By profession she was a pediatrician, and what she told me left me with a lot of fear and anxiety, and the excitement which was brimming within me, left me. Our neighbor may have certainly meant well and the free Vaastu Gyan she gave me, the verdict on what I should have done in my house vs. is my home my own home really {I waited 18 long years to move into one).

The Vaastu Verdict was

The Northeast corner should be empty – I have a garage

The Cooking stove should be in the east direction -I have it facing South

The PRAYER room should have the deities facing the east rather than the West.

 

The judgment was served. I asked my new neighbor to offer any solutions; a gleaming slime of pride adorned my neighbors face.“What I can say is you could possibly use a rice cooker on the east side as rice is the main meal”. And I thought to myself, no I must use the cooktop we love for making rotis and sabzi and dal. Hello I am an Indian; I need a minimum of two dishes. Seeing that this idea was not cheering me up, she said “I have conveyed my guru’s message that he gave me when I was building my home. The rest is up to you”. I was wondering, I never wanted to know what your guru said, why confuse me. It had been a long day of shifting, and I was tired now, she added to the stress. After all this, she said “I really like the vibes of the house. The house looks beautiful”. I had enough; what is she saying? She really likes the place after everything she said, and really, who cares, it was very late in the night. I was completely fagged out.

After she left, I was a little restless; while I dismissed whatever she said somewhere, it felt uneasy having moved to my own house after 18 years. It was essential to have it all right. Slowly I felt her words echoing. Now I really could not put myself to sleep. My better half, having witnessed the entire episode, dismissed the advice of our lady neighbor saying their house looks positively ugly why are they commenting about ours {albeit it felt nice for few seconds it was the meanest thing to say but my mind was still stressed out and there was an uneasy feeling and panic. I wanted to hear that this house is excellent and everything in it is lovely, and at that very moment my mind flashed the picture of my savior.

Photo: View of the house

My savior -Ms. Sashikala is a Vaastu expert and exponent, and her entire life has been spent studying the Vaastu shastra and adapting the profound insights of the ancient texts to contemporary application.  I had attended her session, found them so insightful and profound it made me fall in love with our ancient scriptures all over again. As they say, the interpretation of the text is the most important thing. Sashi mam was such a delight she will seamlessly put forth the most complex theory in a beautifully elegant and most straightforward way possible. I was fortunate to go through these sessions a couple of times, and I was clearly in awe of our ancient scriptures and, of course, Sashi mam.

My mind kept racing back to her sessions. Her classes were like this pure water pond for a person who has been thirsty for a long and has been wanting to explore the spiritual journey. In those sessions, many times I remembered hearing that Vaastu is all about providing solutions and not scaring or putting fear in people’s mind. This statement resonated and echoed till I was smiling from ear to ear and gave me the most blessed relief so much so, the dark Amavasya night looked brighter than ever as my heart was filled with light and hope.

The next  morning I felt  wonderful as I was going to talk to my mentor who will be giving me practical suggestions and most importantly remove my fear and give simple solutions. Believe me as the conversation was happening, I started to feel a wave of emotions and the best word to sum it all up when it ended was -Exuberance which literally means the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness, ebullience.

Well, I was exuberant post the conversation with Sashi mam. The discussion was like an antidote to a bite. It gave so much Life to my thoughts and actions; I was exalted. Sashi mam gave me some simple solutions (which I will share in a bit). She instantly put me to ease when she said she knows of a family who lived in a house where not a single thing was correct, as per Vaastu. Still, the house had so much positive energy thanks to the family living there, and the entire house started vibrating with positivity. This is the power of our thought and the energy we create, especially in a new home.

This statement gave me immense strength; first, it clarified the power one has as an individual and how they can own their space; owning a room can be done in both ways, positive or otherwise. Holding space is like having a garden. You could make it beautiful and be proud about it or just ignore it, and it can grow wild.

She further mentioned something extraordinary; there is a lot of difference between an old house and a new one. The old house or space already has existing energy. That is why when we go to a temple, the power is very optimistic. It kind of attracts us. In any old place, the energy could be thanks to the previous inmates. Still, in a new house, one gets to transform and build the power you own right from the start. This was empowering.

Honestly, the feeling of vitality set in as I felt being in control of my ship, knowing what to do, and navigating the waters smoothly. She told me to do a straightforward thing to go around every corner of the house and radiate positive thoughts throughout all the nook and corners of the house-simple but profound; how many of us think this way? We may know this, but the fact that one creates their energy in their space and own it up is a very empowering thing. Believe me, I practice it, and I love my home more and more thanks to mam.

Well, this was the start of the conversation. I was already exalted, and then we delved into the Vaastu verdict to remind you all.

The Vaastu Verdict was

The Northeast corner should be empty – I have a garage

The Cooking stove should be in the east direction -I have it facing south

The PRAYER room should have the deities facing the east rather than the east.

The solution Sashi mam offered was simple the first verdict.

She said the northeast corner is essential as it helps mental clarity and thinking ability; hence hang a picture of Lord Ganesh in the northeast. Lord Ganesh symbolizes wisdom, understanding, and a discriminating intellect that one must possess to attain perfection in Life. Above all, Lord Ganesh and his symbols bestow life lessons to help steady the mind and evolve with spiritual progression. This resonated with me; however, my mind, as usual, anticipated a different situation. Hanging a deity picture outside the home in a foreign country, I was uncomfortable with the idea. When I expressed this to Sashi mam viola, she gave me another solution: keep an elephant. That was such a simple solution.

I went ahead and got an Elephant planter and placed it exactly in the northeast corner.

Second verdict

She said having the cooking stove in the east is the best position to be in, and if it is facing south to ensure it does not cause any harm to the inmates, place a picture of goddess annapoorani.

Annapoorani goddess is the goddess of food and nourishment. She relates to always having plenty of food as the goddess ensures her devotees get their food for sustenance always. This simple but powerful logic was so apt, and it blew me away, and it felt like I had dusted the mirror. My reflection became very clear, and this is what happened to me. My spiritual coach helped me dust off my doubts so effortlessly, and things were clear again.

Third and Final Verdict

The prayer room should have the deity’s face facing the east.

She clarified it can be east, west, north, and in any of these directions, it is all good. She even related it to the numerous temples in southern India, where people have put little Ganesha temple in almost every community. Due to lack of space, they are either placed in east /west or north that solved it all. All the solutions were simple. There was no expense and demolition (and before the conversation started, she told me to send a picture of the house plan, which I promptly did), only the addition of simple and positive things.

Believe me, at that moment, the night cum wee hours of the morning in its absolute silence was beautiful, and my heart filled with gratitude and happiness for being blessed with a beautiful house and having found a Great Mentor in Sashi Mam…I was genuinely EXUBERANT……

(The journey into my new home had only then begun, and all the anticipation, fear, and doubts slowly disappeared while the joy of knowing what to do was an all-pervading experience. The solution implementation I will share in the next blog)

About the Author- S. Vijayalakshmi

Currently working as an independent Resilient Leadership Coach in Dallas US. Before relocating to US worked with Piramal foundation for education leadership as their Learning & Organization development specialist, (The foundation is renowned for its Gandhi fellowship program)

21 +Years’ experience in Banking & Service industry worked with TCs leading their Learning & Development team in Mumbai & Pune catering to learning needs of 18k people across all levels from in multiple verticals from Pharma, banking & Retail.