Ground-breaking – and so we begin…

One very intriguing aspect of building a Maharishi Vastu home is the three Vedic ceremonies that are performed during the project. The first one, the ground-breaking ceremony, is held before any work is done on the land.

These ceremonies are done at an auspicious time and date chosen by Maharishi Jyotish experts according to our birth charts. Beginning the project at this time with this specific ceremony ensures that the house construction will get the best start possible, and will benefit from great support from nature.

The day of our ground-breaking arrived as a foggy, west coast November day.

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Kitchen Delight

In our home, the kitchen is a very important room since both David and I love to cook. When we designed the kitchen in our Vastu home, we made sure that it had everything we needed – adequate storage, convenient locations for supplies and equipment, as well as surfaces that could take the wear and tear of avid cooks. We even installed an extremely durable Marmoleum  flooring that is turmeric coloured (called Asian Tiger) – to hide potential stains!

However, we have been surprised to find that there is a feature of Maharishi Vastu design that is even more important

A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven

Flowers in our garden

We are all probably very familiar with the song “To Everything There is a Season”, with music by Pete Seeger, words from Ecclesiastes, and performed by The Byrds in the 60s.

I was reminded of this song again the other day as I experienced another moment of events happening in their own time and at their own pace. This has been a very common occurrence since moving into our Maharishi Vastu home a year and a half ago.

I don’t know about you, but I am a constant ‘list maker’. I always have a list of things to do, whether on paper or in my head. Over the years my habit has been to review my list each day to see what I can ‘scratch off’. I get great pleasure from the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing the list shrink.

However, something has changed in the last 18 months.

Feel the Silence

Every room in a Vastu building is placed in the location that will bring maximum support for the activities that take place there. This principle was emphasized for me recently when we had a special visitor come to our Maharishi Vastu home.

Vaidya Jagdish Vaidya, a Maharishi Ayurvedic doctor, came to our home a couple of weeks ago when he was on Salt Spring as part of his tour of Canada. When he entered the bedroom, he nodded approvingly and said, “Very, very good. I can feel the silence.”

I turned my attention to the room

Curving back on my Self

Columbine in our garden

David and I have been living in our Maharishi Vastu home for more than a year now. It has been a remarkable experience for both of us and this seems to be a good time to reflect on the changes that have occurred as a result of living in Vastu.

It has taken me some time to write this entry because it is difficult to pinpoint the most  significant theme of the year. However, the phrase I quoted in the title has given me a starting point. It comes from the Bhagavad-Gita, which Maharishi describes as the essence of Vedic literature.

“Curving back upon My own Nature (My Self), I create again and again.” – Bhagavad-Gita 9.8

Upon reflection, I realize that every experience since moving into this house has brought me back to my Self.

Protection – the Maharishi Vastu Effect

When David and I were planning our home, we decided that our Vastu fence should be constructed so that it would keep the deer out. Every Maharishi Vastu home has a Vastu fence that delineates its boundaries. Everything within the fence – house, utilities, water features, etc. – has a specific dimension and/or is located in the perfect location to bring the most positive results to the occupants.

In our rural location at the top of a mountain on an island, the deer are very hungry. They eat everything on the list of plants that deer are not supposed to eat – except for daisies, foxglove and daffodils. We were looking forward to having a small piece of our 11 acres where we could grow plants that we wanted to enjoy – vegetables and flowers, esp. rhododendrons, clematis and roses, our favourites!

Living from the Heart

When we started construction, I was eager to find out what the experience of building my own Vastu house would be like. I had been in many other Vastu homes, but would there be a difference in building my own home?

The answer is a resounding YES! At the beginning there was a lot of bliss and support from nature in the process. At times we would run into a road block for something we had planned, only to find out that the solution was even better than our original plan. Nature was guiding us at every step.

Then came the raising of the walls – the first defining of the space that was to be our home. I began to notice the strong feeling around my heart that came when I stepped into that space formed by the walls. I felt like the house was connected to my heart and vice-versa. Whenever I was inside those walls, my heart felt warm; I felt nourished. And I felt as if I was nourishing the house. I was helping it grow into reality.

This feeling grew stronger as the roof went on and the walls became more defined.

Effortless Accomplishments

After my husband and I had been in our new Vastu home for 2 or 3 weeks, we began to notice something – an experience we hadn’t had before. Items on our ‘To Do’ list were being dealt with very smoothly and quickly.

David expressed it this way: “Everything seems to be accomplished so easily.” Not only that, but items that were not on our ‘To Do’ list, things we had no intention of doing at this point, seemed to insert themselves and then be completed within hours.

Let me give you an example. We have been doing some landscaping – planting flowers and bedding plants in the new soil around the house before the weeds decide to move in. In one area, we needed to cover up an ugly drain pipe sticking out of the ground, but it wasn’t a high priority. After all, drain pipes don’t multiply like weeds do!

The softness of sleep

Recently a friend came to visit and stayed overnight for a few days. She has stayed in Vastu homes before and when she woke in the morning, she commented:

“I had forgotten about the special quality of sleep that you get in a Vastu home.”

Yes, there is a very different quality to the sleep we get here. It is hard to describe – deep sleep? Not quite the right term; it is very restful, but not as if you have sunk into some deep pit. There is a silence and an emptiness in the sleep, but that doesn’t quite give the right feeling.

The first 24 hours

Someone asked me what my first night in our new home was like. Here is what I told them:

So far I have experienced

• a head absolutely bursting (buzzing?) with bliss,
  
• a feeling of peace and groundedness,
  
• my heart feels as if it is being filled up and nourished, but as if this is a ‘work in progress’ with more to come, and