Monday, Dec 10 2001
Vastu Living by Kathleen Cox
- Anjana BasuAnjana Basu taught English Literature, briefly, in Calcutta University. She writes poetry, stories, features in the local newspapers and in Cosmopolitan. She has had a book of short stories published by Orient Longman, India. The BBC had broadcast one of her short stories and her poems have featured in an anthology brought out by Penguin India. In America she has been published in The Wolfhead Quarterly, Gowanus, The Blue Moon Review, and Recursive Angel, to name a few.
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Book Name:Vastu Living by Kathleen Cox
Publisher: Harper Collins India
Pages: 247
Price: Rs. 295
ISBN: 1-56924-644-0
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Ayorveda for your home
Vastu - 20 years ago the educated Indian had heard more about Feng Shui than about Vastu - yet suddenly it is over all the classified for buildings and architecture. There is a column on Vastu and everyday life in one of the main Indian papers and suddenly people are wondering how they managed without it for so long.
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In the foreword of this book, which is written by a New Yorker who spent time in Delhi, Vastu is described as ‘ayurveda for buildings’. The word comes from Sanskrit and means 'dwelling'.. Vastu is described in a part of Vedas believed to be four to five thousand years old. Vastu Sastra is the guidelines given by the Supreme Being. It tells us how to avoid disappointments, diseases and disasters by living in structures which allow a positive cosmic field to be present.
The benefits of Vastu are given in the opening verse of Vastu Sastra, attributed to the sage Viswakarma. This is what the sage says:
'Sastrenanena sarvasya' (This science is complete in itself)
'Lokasya paramam sukham' (It can bring happiness to the whole world)
'Chaturvarga phala prapti' (It bestows on you all four types of benefits namely rightful living-money-fulfilment of desires and bliss)
'Salokascha bhaved dhruvam' (Are all available in this world)
About ten years ago, some industrialists hired Vastu trained architects in the desperate hope that the science would improve their declining fortunes. The results of this were spectacular enough for them to broadcast. A decade later, Vaastu has spread over the length and breadth of India. Educated people are now convinced that there is some scientific basis for Vaastu and that it has the potential to improve the quality of life.
Kathleen Cox’s book is a book on how to apply the ancient wisdom of the Hindu Vedas to achieve harmony and bring the divine into every dimension of your environment. Perhaps because it is written by a non-Indian, the book breaks new ground. It is the first book on the subject to offer an easy hands on approach to Vastu and it is also the first book that links the principles of ayurveda and uses them to allow you to apply Vastu to mould your own working and living spaces.
The first half of the book is an explanation of Vastu’s connection to the Vedas and how it has been applied to Hindu temples, like the great temples of Khajuraho. Cox also outlines how Vastu is linked to ayurveda, meditation and yoga. In the second half of the book she goes on to explain how you can practice Vastu today in your home, your workplace and your outdoor spaces. She also has a handy problem-solution reckoner for people who are likely to be confused at first and brings in household items like TVs which were not part of the original Vastu scheme of things: "Never let the television or the entertainment centre become the social heart of a home. The television is not conducive to socialising and is not the heart and soul of anything."
In the introduction Cox tells us how she began learning about Vastu and how a man called Sudesh took her to his Vastu arranged office. There he asked her hard questions until he decided that he trusted her, ‘an unlikely foreigner with a strange mission.’ Cox is most impressed by the harmony and spiritual well being that arise from Vastu. She confesses that in the beginning she dismissed it all as superstition but that time and proof wore away her doubts. Which is why she embarked on this book.
Her discoveries are clearly laid out in the steps that she advocates for attaining Vastu living and she goes about her task with a scholar’s dedication, outlining her sources and drawing parallels between Vastu and ayurveda, before she lays out the guidelines. Dosha, vata, pitta and kapha are being used by international cosmetic manufacturers like Bodyshop, to provide extra insight into skincare, so these are terms which are becoming all to familiar abroad. However, the links between ayurveda and Vastu are not really understood even by many Indians. Cox’s book, therefore, is invaluable because it provides easy access to a science and makes it easily applicable to everyday life.
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