Vaastu Shastra, yantra and Auroville

Sri Aurobindo, she explained, devoted a large section of the Foundation of Indian Culture to architecture. Also, in The Human Cycle, he explained that reason, ethics and aesthetics have to be balanced; if we don’t balance these three elements, it will not lead to a harmonious result. Applying this to the science of building, he speaks of temple architecture and proportions, and how sacred architecture was always at the service of something higher, eternal and symbolic.

Vaastu Shastra takes into consideration diverse aspects and branches of knowledge, such as astrology, mathematics, numerology, climate, function, time and place. It mainly deals with climate and human comfort and brings together macrocosm and microcosm, by combining a rigorously scientific approach with the architect’s own intuitive faculties, so accessing the inner and higher dimensions.

Contrary to certain beliefs, in Vaastu Shastra nothing is totally fixed. However, as in any other Indian art form, only when one goes deep into something can one go a step beyond. Architect Sashikala Ananth, who is an expert practitioner of Vaastu Shastra, always emphasises the importance of developing one’s intuition rather than blindly or rigidly following rituals and mathematics.

Today’s architects are usually taught to use the Golden Mean as a system of proportion, widely popularised by French architect Le Corbusier in the middle of the last century. However, Mona discovered that by applying the principles of Vaastu Shastra one can work out a proportion that is at the same time client-specific, climate-specific, function-specific and site-specific. Ayadi calculations, which are used to calculate dimensions in Vaastu design, use astrology only as a starting point, and then go deeply into mathematics and work on a holistic approach. Unfortunately, today, since Indian architects are not taught this science, astrologers have taken over this branch and treat it as a predictive/prescriptive method rather than taking a more scientific approach.

The best known examples of ancient Indian temples and cities based on the principles of Vaastu Shastra are Srirangam and Jaipur. These are quite successful. One can see in their designs that they have flexibility and are not cast in stone. In the Master Plan of Jaipur, for example, one whole square (block) from the sacred nine squares, which are based on the nine planets, is realigned to accommodate the hilly topography. In other words, Mona emphasised, Vaastu is a precise science, but not dogmatic; it’s deep, rich, and subtle.

Teaching Vaastu Shastra

Today, there are not many vaastu teachers available. Sashikala Ananth is an exception. She studied architecture in Chennai, and went on to study Vaastu Shilpa Shastra for ten years with Ganapathi Sthapathi at Mahabalipuam. She combines in her learning the knowledge of yoga, mythology, psychology, behavioural work, fine arts, Vaastu Shastra, crafts, and architecture. Over the decades she has designed many programmes aiming at bridging the traditional and the modern, and has written several books on Vaastu Shastra.

Since 2013, Sashikala has conducted several workshops on Vaastu Shastra in Auroville, with a particular focus on studying the Auroville Master Plan in relation to Vaastu Shastra.

In the Dreamweaving workshop, Sashikala clarified that Vaastu Shilpa Shastra is about bringing Time and Space into relationship, in such a way that something is created in the outside world that is capable of evoking good energies, transformative energies, wellness, joy and so on.

“So when we create in the world outside – objects, buildings, thought, whatever it may be – if what is created can embody practicality and usefulness, aesthetics and lasting delight, then we have created something that is timeless. This is the basis of Vaastu Shastra.

“Sri Aurobindo and Mother haven’t by accident chosen to create the community of Auroville in India. This soil here has a certain power and a certain wisdom. I believe it is our task and responsibility to bring this wisdom and consciousness into everything that we create.”

Yantra and the Master Plan

A yantra is a design generally made up of geometric lines that serves to invoke or materialise certain forces. Sashikala explained that yantra have not only certain shapes and forms (they can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional), but certain arithmetical co-relations between form and space. A yantra is also related to the cardinal directions, which play a very essential role in Vaastu Shastra, and it has to be crafted and placed at the right time.

At some point, the eminent Indian architect B.V. Doshi had said that the Galaxy plan was a yantra. This is why, Mona explained, when the question of yantra came up in the context of Auroville’s Master Plan, Sashikala had been asked for her input.

Specifically, Sashikala was asked by a dreamweaving participant, “When there is a favourable geometry based on Vaastu, and at the same time this form is difficult to achieve, or contradictory to the natural and ecosystem situation, what would you do? Because the big issue now in Auroville planning is the ecology versus the geometry.”

She replied that it is a very difficult question to answer because it will be context-based. However, “In my personal opinion, I would defer to Nature, and I would not hold fast to geometry. Because I believe that when you have a small property or a small site, then you can adhere to strict geometry. But the moment you are moving away from it into large tracts of land, like the plan of Srirangam… if you look at the way in which each of the subsequent spaces have been dimensioned, there is a shift. It does not exactly follow the same rectilinear form, but there is some shift in the design, which has something to do with the land form. You can have different individual forms, but the relationship to the cardinal directions is of prime importance. Then only it is a yantra.”