Children's rooms and Vastu shastra

This is a guest column on Vastu (also Vaastu or Vastushastra or Vastushastra) for children's rooms.

Guest contributor: Arun Naik

Anil and Anjali run their factory of wrought iron furniture in Noida.  In November 2006 they shifted from Delhi to Noida into a house which is much larger and better located than their previous house.  Soon after shifting Anjali noticed that her 11 year old son Karan was restless and not very comfortable in the new house.  Initially she thought that the restlessness was due to relocation from Delhi to Noida; in Delhi Karan had his circle of friends, and she thought that he was missing them.  Soon he would adjust, she thought, and so did not bother much.

But within weeks Karan developed a certain arrogance and assertiveness in his behaviour.  He began to disobey Anjali, quarrel with his younger sister Sharda, make unreasonable demands for gifts and toys, not apologize for his mistakes, and turn stubborn whenever reprimanded.

In the next PTA meet in the school Karan’s class teacher told Anil and Anjali that Karan had begun to slip in his studies and was becoming the bully of the class. They met the student counselor, who was also a child psychologist, and with guidance from her tried to handle the situation.  Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.

I met Anil when he had come to listen to my talk on Vãstu at the local Rotary meet.  After the talk he discussed the problem of his son with me and asked if I could come over to see his residence.

It was a well built house with roads in North, West and South, with its main entrance facing North, and a driveway in the East.  The couple occupied a room in the South, the daughter slept with the parents, and the boy was given the room in the South-Western corner.  His room had a separate entry, as well as a connecting door to the Master Bed Room.  Both the rooms were very quiet and the only thing I could hear was the faint hum of the air-conditioner.  Both the rooms had heavy curtains to keep out the harsh daylight. Obviously, all the windows were shut. The bedroom of the kid was stuffed with toys, cricket bat, pads, skating shoes, school bag and books, and everything was scattered and strewn all around. His room smelt of used socks, his bed was in a mess, chaos ruled his room.  For light the ceiling had two CFLs which certainly did not produce sufficient light.

No wonder the child had turned arrogant, volatile, and had lost interest in his studies.  Children are more sensitive than the grown-ups to Vãstu energies.  South-West is the direction for the Boss, the Master of the House, it is the Power Seat, and here was a typical case where an 11-year old child was given the South-West room and he had turned demanding, had started to act bossy and tough.  An equally dire mistake was the keeping away of natural light and absence of cross-ventilation. The third mistake was the absence of order and harmony in the room.  The fourth mistake was the absence of proper artificial light in the room.

The kid was shifted to an unoccupied room in Western part of the house.  According to Vãstu principles children should be given a room in the Western direction.  The servant was instructed to leave the window open as much as possible to allow in ample natural light and occasional gusts of fresh breeze. We furnished the room with light furniture, used light lemon, khaki and green colours for the bed, got him a chair, a study table which we personalized by writing his name on it.  Next we created a ‘study corner’ in the North-Eastern corner of his room and placed the study table, a little bookshelf, his school bag and his other books in there.  Karan was told that it was ‘his’ table, and he should feel proud to keep it clean and orderly. And yes, we also got him a table clock.

The change was gradual, but steady and positive.  His arrogance gave way to discipline, he began to take interest in his studies, Anjali made him join the Tennis Academy, and in a few weeks the results were obvious.  The kid was now brilliant, active, happy, and fresh as a bloom.

Vãstushastra is a system of architecture which has detailed instructions for designing and building a dwelling.  The need of the hour is to incorporate these instructions into present living conditions to get their maximum benefit. Children are more sensitive, and therefore care must be taken when designing the room for the kids.  Listed below are some important considerations for a room for the kids.

• The ideal direction for the room of the children in a house is West or WNW – West by North-West (between West and North-West).
• The directions of North, East, and North-East are associated with light and knowledge.  A good practice is to place the study table in the North-Eastern part of the room.  If that is not possible, then place it in Northern or Eastern part of the room in such a manner that the child faces North, East or North-East while studying.  This would help the child to concentrate and absorb whatever is studied. 
• Use light shades of green or sky blue for walls and curtains.
• As an alternative, consider using light coloured wallpaper with floral motif. 
• For bedsheets I would suggest colours like green, blue, sky blue, light brown and khaki, off-white, shades of yellow etc.  Refrain from using strong and dark colours. 
• Care should be taken that the W.C. in the child’s room does not face East or West, as it can lead to health problems. 
• Please ensure that the room does not face a T-junction. If it does, consult a Vãstu expert.
• Do not place the bed and the study table under an overhead beam.
• Do not place the bed bang opposite to the entrance door of the room.
• Place the cupboard in the South-Western corner of the room.
• Encourage the child to keep his or her room clean and orderly. Ask him or her to clean it on weekends.
• Encourage the child to say his or her prayers before leaving the bed, before taking food, and before retiring to sleep.
• Do not place a TV in the room.  Let the child watch TV in the family lounge with others.

If a new house is being designed, consult a Vãstu scholar for determining the size of the room for the kids.  Vãstushastra is not about merely directions, it is also about creating finely tuned spaces which resonate with harmony, and one way of doing it is by calculating the room sizes to get the desired result.

Guest contributor

Arun Naik is a Vãstu scholar, teacher and consultant and runs Vastu Sindhu, a Vãstu consultancy.

Besides Vastu consultancy, he is a visiting faculty on Vãstushastra at Human Settlement Management Institute, HUDCO in New Delhi.

Website: www.Vãstusindhu.com

Email: akn@Vãstusindhu.com

Mobile: 9891422794

Landline: 0120-2400388

gaya3guru 2009-12-05 21:17:47

A very helpful article to those who believe in vaasthu. we are right now constructing our new house and all these points would be helpful..