Trees around the house.

Trees around the house.

Continuing my notes on Vaastu,

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/10/residential-houses-around-temple.html

let me look at what Vaastu texts say about the garden around your house – the tress that are to be there or not there.

‘Vriksha dosha’ is something that must be seen for keeping proper Vaastu.

Certain trees are not desirable near the residential house.

According to Vaastu principles, the tall trees must be little away from the house.

The reason is that the shade of the trees should not fall on the Main door (simha dwara) of the house at any time of the day and

on the house in general during the second and third part of the day

(between 9 AM to 3 PM ).

If it happens, it will cause vriksha dosha and vrisksha chaaya dosha respectively.

The rationale can be traced to the very basics of Vaastu.

Vaastu means ‘ vasa nivase’ – where devas and humans reside.

The devas are none but the energy forms of the sun light / rays.

The sun light that falls on anything on the earth

(everything has ‘vaastu’ as per this sastra -Mayamata, Vishwakarma,

King Bhoja et al say this),

distributes its energy in a methodical fashion.

As far as land is concerned, if the land is a perfect square or rectangle,

the solar energy distribution takes place perfectly.

(This holds good in town and city planning too.)

One my wonder how the energy distribution follows the contours of one’s plot.

It is like how a billion images of suns can be captured in a billion cups of water.

Each cup having a dimension and water in it,

captures the image of the sun and its rays.

Similarly each piece of land marked with a boundary or fence

does capture the image of the sun with its rays.

That is why the first important thing to be done after purchasing a site is to fence it.

The results will be optimal if the site is square or rectangle in shape.

If not, re-arrange the markings on your site and

make it into these geometrical shapes

by fencing them in these two shapes.

In the previous post where I wrote about Veedhi shoola,

a similar marking will help in removing the Veedhi-shoola defect.

Don’t construct in that portion facing the street.

Raise a fence (with a gate to access this part from the inside and not from the roadside )

around that area facing the road and make a garden there.

The garden - not your house - with defined contours will be facing the road.

The veedhi shoola will be absorbed by this garden.

Coming to the topic of sun rays falling on the ground,

anywhere between 32 to 100 forms of solar energy called as Deities or devas

settle down on the plot and therefore on the house in the plot and

they continuously reinforce their energy level in their respective regions of settlement.

It is on this basis only the rooms such as

kitchen, bed room etc are constructed.

The basic theory is that sun rays distributed in the plot

energize the plot.

One will be surprised to know that the famous prayer chant of the Upanishads,

pray to these deities accompanying the sun.

The Mithra, Varuna and Aryama of “shamno mithra.. chant”

are the deities accompanying the sun all the time.

They are repeatedly praised in Rig veda

and I have quoted them from Purananuru texts too

and written in the ‘Pithru tarpan’ posts.

These three along with the core sun, settle in the central portion of the plot.

These three accept the water oblations for pithrus offered at mid-day.

That means that from of energy which evaporates the water oblations

are known as these deities.

The general and vast evaporation that is happening all the time

is another form of energy of the sun.

A lot of research can be done on the sun-rays alone and

the forms of energy that they convert into.

Jyothisha contains lot of inputs to give leads to such a research.

Coming to the main topic of this post – the trees-

since the aim is to grab as much as energy from the sun,

any feature that hinders that energy from falling on the residential area is discouraged.

That is how vriksha sastra has a relevance in Vaastu.

(elsewhere in astrology there are other areas of importance for trees. They will be discussed in course of time).

The basic condition is that sun light should not be hindered.

The second condition is that the trees by their own energy vibrations must not harm the inmates of the house.

So there must be some element of discrimination in the choice of trees.

Coming to the first condition,

the shade of the tree should not fall on the simha dwara or

main entrance door of the house.

If it does, it will cause Vriskha dosha and the owner will have problems

in getting progeny.

A verandah in the front of the main door will ensure a cool environ needed

when one enters the house.

But no tree shade must fall directly on the main door.

This also takes to mean that there must be no tree right in front of the door

either within the compound or outside the compound.

But there can be tress at a minimum distance of 10 yards on other sides.

Here the measurement of yard is different from the British system

or the ones mentioned in an earlier post.

In the ancient Indian system, the measurements vary from item to item

depending on the requirement and utility.

The measurement with reference to residences must be based

on purusha pramana,

i.e., the height of the owner of the house.

The measurement of yard in this case is equivalent to two hastas.

One ‘hasta’ is equal to one – fifth of the height of the owner of the house

measured from his feet to the tip of his ring finger when his hand is stretched

above his head in standing posture.

Two hastas of this measurement make one yard.

Any tree must be away from the plinth of the house by a minimum of ten such yards.

It must be noted that the height of man as told in texts like Brihad samhita

is not the same as the average Indian height of today.

It seems Indians were taller in those days.

The average male was said to be of madhyama pramana i.e., 6 ft high.

The superior or ‘uthama pramana’ of a man was six feet and nine inches.

The inferior of ‘heena pramana’ was 5 feet three inches.

But what is known is that the average height of Indian male was 6 feet.

The hasta as calculated above is generally about the height of the owner of the house.

On the basis of the hasta of the purusha pramaana,

the distance at which the trees must be kept within the compound must be determined. But today we don’t have so much space in cities.

Keeping trees within residential compound is almost ruled out in cities

but allowed in multi storeyed buildings.

Because the basic purpose is not hinder sunlight falling on the house.

This problem does not arise in high rise buildings.

In individual residential houses Vaastu permits coconut tress near the compound walls.

But no neem tree in the east or

mango in the south or

plantains in the west.

Generally trees having water content such as plantains are not advisable

in the west and north east.

Likewise fruit trees in the east and

milk bearing trees in the south and south east are not advisable.

But lot of bush like plants, creepers, flower bearing plants are advisable

anywhere around the house.

One caution is that thorny bushes and thorny plants/trees are not advisable

in north east and north west.

The kind of garden maintained in the olden days and in rural India

are ideal and Vaastu compliant.

The front door can be stretched with creepers such as jasmine pandhal.

As many as flowering plants particularly those fit enough for puja

are to be planted around the house.

In this day of Bonsai culture, short trees are also acceptable close to houses

as long as they don not hinder sunlight falling on the house.