Talavane Krishna M.D. - The Vaastu Workbook: Using the Subtle Energies of the Indian Art of Placement

To all the sages who gave us the vedic wisdom of vaastu, which guides us to live harmoniously with the universe; to Mr. Geretta Reddy, whose vast experience and knowledge taught me many subtle aspects of vaastu science; and most of all to my spiritual master, Sri Ranga.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE and thank the many people who helped and guided me in the completion of this book. Foremost among them are my wife, Anita, and my friend and publisher, Ehud C. Sperling. Many thanks for the infinite patience of Jon Graham and Jeanie Levitan, the editorial staff at Destiny Books. I also am grateful to my friends Kris Kilham and Sahana and many other Western friends who encouraged me to write this book.

INDUS VALLEY FOUNDATION

THE INDUS VALLEY FOUNDATION (IVF) is a nonprofit organization in Mysore, Karnataka State, India, aimed at promoting ayurveda worldwide. IVFunder the name of Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center (IVAC)conducts many activities including Panchakarma and Rejuvenation therapies, research in ayurveda, formulation of herbal products, yoga, and meditation. IVAC also has a very active educational program, including comprehensive training for ayurvedic therapists and nutritionists, short courses in ayurveda designed especially for people from overseas, and monthlong courses on ayurvedic pulse diagnosis and vaastu.

Dr. Talavane Krishna directs the IVAC program with a team of experts in various aspects of ayurveda and related vedic sciences. IVAC is situated on fifteen beautiful acres of perfect vaastu land filled with coconut palms and various tropical flowering trees and plants. All the structures were built and arranged in accordance with vaastu tenets. The centers eight-acre herb garden is one of the finest in the country, with more than eight hundred species of medicinal plants arranged according to vaastu and astrological specifications. Visitors are welcome at the center in Mysore or via the Web at .

MY PERSONAL STORY

SINCE EARLY CHILDHOOD I have been very inquisitive. I wanted to know about everything around me and why things were the way they were. In school I first became fascinated with physics because it answered many of my questions. Later I studied Western medicine in India and continued my postgraduate work in the U.K. and Canada. After this I practiced medicine in the United States for sixteen years.

The twists and turns of life brought me back to my homeland of India in October 1994. My family and I moved into a house that had been under construction for more than six years. Unbeknownst to us, it had several vaastu defects. Soon the trouble started. Health and financial problems began mounting. The construction costs on the house were rising beyond our means. Accidents occurred frequently in the house. The members of my family seemed to be constantly ill, though in most cases no specific disease could be diagnosed. My wife Anitawho had begun to suffer from unexplained feversbecame totally bedridden for six weeks because of a slipped disk. Then our house contractor died suddenly of a heart attack. Several months later our electrical contractor also died of a heart attack. It seemed as though anything that could go wrong did, and even things that should have gone smoothly somehow found a way to go wrong as well.

Some friends who visited our house and saw our plight recommended that we seek the guidance of a consultant in vaastu, the vedic science of architecture and household harmony. This we did, turning to Geretta Reddya highly respected vaastu consultantfor advice.

While I had never practiced vaastu, from the time I was ten I had been exposed to ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine that has a history of several thousand years to its credit. Ayurveda and vaastu, both being vedic sciences, share many basic principles. Ayurveda is based on an entirely different philosophy from that of Western medicine, one that considers the body and mind as integral parts of a holistic system of living. Thus, ayurveda practitioners believe that in treating a disease one should consider the mind and body as a single unit. The influence of the planets and the five basic elementsether, air, fire, water, and earthare all taken into consideration while diagnosing a health problem.

Along with practicing Western medicine, I had begun to seriously study this ancient health system. The more I learned, the more my fascination with it increased. Its scientifc approach to holistic living, which takes all aspects of the life force into consideration, was extremely appealing to me. The new insights provided by the study of this ancient science were in direct contrast to Western medicine, but because ayurveda was successful in curing my own health problemswhen Western medicine had not beenI knew there was something to it.

While studying ayurvedic pulse diagnosis, I also noted a consistent pattern in the interrelationship between the five basic elements and the planetary forces. I found that the interplay between them was the key to all happenings in life, and everything in the world had a direct or indirect relationship that could be traced to these forces. I began to see the connections between the three vedic sciencesayurveda, vaastu, and jyotish, vedic astrology. So I had arrived at a point in my life where my own experience had convinced me of the valid basis of traditional Indian knowledge and, considering the plague of troubles affecting our household, I was ready to embrace vaastu if it would help.

When Mr. Reddy came to the house, he told us of our past history of unfortunate events before any of us had given him a single detail about our situation. He quickly identified all the vaastu defects of our property and revealed how our problems were related to these defects. He showed great compassion and took a genuine interest in our situation. With his motivation and guidance we corrected the vaastu. His most important advice was to remove the front entrance door and close it with a permanent wall. Amazingly enough, my wife became completely cured of her slipped disk twenty-four hours after we repaired this defect. In addition, her fevers disappeared. This was a decisive moment for us, and we soon corrected most of the other defects to put ourselves back on the right track.

Vaastus effects are sometimes subtle, but at other times they can be astonishingly direct. For example, I decided that I wanted to buy the property that bordered mine to the North. Unfortunately, the owners already had an agreement with another party and had received twenty-five percent of the sale price as a down payment from them. It was a solid deal and I believed that my chances of buying the property were zero.

I mentioned my desire to buy the neighboring property to Mr. Reddy and jokingly asked whether I would be able to purchase the property if I changed our propertys vaastu according to his recommendations. He looked straight into my eyes and said, Yes, you will get that property. If I am wrong, I will buy twenty-five acres of land and give it to you myself. When I asked Mr. Reddy how he could be so sure, he smiled and said, Vaastu is not a superficial thing. It requires a lot of sensitive and intuitive knowledge. He told me that he had noted the time when I asked the question and observed the direction in which I was standing and he had taken these things into consideration before he answered. Soon I made the vaastu changes he had recommended, which were to correct some defects related to a wood-burning water heater in the Northeast part of the house.

A few days after making the corrections I received a call from my neighbor, who told me the first buyer had reneged on his commitment. He asked if I was still interested in the property. I jumped at the offer and bought it right away.