Vedic home design said to provide health, prosperity

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer

Paul Worland suffered from chronic sinus infections and fatigue. Cathleen Cook suffered from various health problems, including lingering depression.

Both feel much better today and say they are enjoying life more, with better health, greater peace of mind and even improved finances. But it wasn't a doctor, therapist or financial consultant who helped improve their life, they say. It was their houses.

"We built the house as a Vedic style," Worland said about this style of building associated with Hindu culture. The word Vedic comes from Veda, which is a sacred Hindu text.



Specifically, vastu architecture follows the belief that the direction a building faces and the use of its rooms have a direct effect on the health and well-being of its inhabitants, he explained.

"Proper vastu means proper direction, dimension and placement of the rooms," Worland said. "The orientation of the house is critical. It (the front of the house) faces due east or due north."

Like astrology, vastu architecture is based in a belief that solar, lunar and planetary influences affect life on earth. Proponents of the philosophy believe the strongest influence comes from the sun, which generates different qualities of energy as it travels east to west. Ancient Vedic formulas describe how houses should be designed so activities in the house correspond with the influences of the sun's energy.

While not as widely known as its Asian cousin, feng shui, which also sees a correlation between design and well-being, vestu architect is gaining in popularity.

The 200-person Maharishi Vedic City in Iowa consists entirely of Vedic-style buildings, while the dozen or so Vedic-style homes near Cook and Worland in Barona Mesa, just south of San Diego Country Estates, make up the largest cluster of the style in Southern California, Cook said.

Cook and her husband, Joel, moved into their custom home three years ago. Like Worland, they practice Transcendental Meditation, introduced to the West in the 1960s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who is helping resurrect Vedic design worldwide. The maharishi plans to build 3,000 "peace palaces" in the Vedic style to teach meditation and other programs around the globe. An 18,000-square-foot palace opened in August in Dallas.

"It works because the orientation of the house, relative to the sun's axis, has a very powerful influence," Worland said of the Vedic design principles. "Also, the placement of the room and each of the corners of the buildings, and what you do in those areas, will affect the whole house."

While associated with Hinduism, Vedic design principles are not tied to any one religion, Joel Cook said.

"The Vedic is a body of knowledge that has been adopted by Hinduism as a source of knowledge," he said. "It's just the basic ways of looking at the laws of nature, how to live and ways to stay healthy."

Joel Cook, an optometrist with a practice in Rancho Penasquitos, sees vastu architecture not as mysticism, but as a set of sound principles.

"The idea is there's a best way to do everything," he said. He also points to studies done by Dr. Alarik Aranander, director of Iowa's Brain Research Institute, whose studies suggest the mind is more orderly when facing east.

Worland's home is based on a traditional Eastern design, while the Cooks' home is an elegant, Craftsman-style home with hardwood floors and natural-finish wood throughout.

"It could be modular," Joel Cook said about how Vedic principles can apply to any style. "It could be a trailer. It could be any old thing you want."

The Cooks' home is crowned with a kalash, an ornate Hindu vase, but there is little else to indicate the house was built following Vedic principles.

But even people unfamiliar with Vedic design might notice that something feels different about the house, the Cooks said.

"We find people who come to visit us like to linger," Joel Cook said. "When they come for dinner, we practically shoo them out the door."

According to literature from the Holland-based Maharishi Vedic Architecture (www.VedicArchitecture.org), an incorrectly placed entrance can lead to "inauspicious, negative influences for everyone." Anger, aggression, constant fear, poverty, chronic disease and lack of vitality and success also can result from incorrectly placed entrances, according to the group.

The dining room should be where digestion will be most healthy, the study should be where intellect will be most lively and the living room should be where social life will enjoy the greatest support, according to Maharishi Vedic Architecture. A booklet created by the group shows the dining room to the south, the living room to the west and the study to the north.

The Cooks' front door faces true east in accordance with Vedic principles, which also call for clear north-to-south and east-to-west sight lines. There should be no activity at the center of the house, or the brahmastan. Accordingly, the Cooks have placed a small table there, holding an orchid-filled vase, bathed in sunlight from an overhead skylight.

Southern entrances should be avoided, so the Cooks have surrounded their south-facing patio with a fence that has no gate.

A desk used for paperwork near the kitchen and another in the study for personal finances both face north, the direction for prosperity.

Certain elements also must correspond with specific compass directions. The fire element, for instance, should be the southeast corner of the house, which is where the Cooks built their kitchen.

The earth element in the southwest corner represents stability and restfulness, so that is where the Cooks placed their master bedroom. The northwest corner of the house represents the air element, so it was a good choice for the guest bedroom, as guests move in and out of the house.

The water element should be in the north, where the Cooks built their exercise pool, and the space element should be in the northeast corner, where the couple built their meditation room. Even their toilet faces north.

The Cooks say the results of following the guidelines have been more than worth it. They moved to Barona Mesa three years ago after living uncomfortably in a conventional house in Mission Hills.

"I feel better," Joel Cook said. "More secure. More aware of the seasons and where you are on the earth."

"I think my health has really improved," Cathleen Cook said. "I had a lingering depression. There was no reason for me to be unhappy, but I was unhappy."

Worland, an architect and engineer for 22 years, is so convinced of the merits of Vastu principles that he will not build a conventional house.

"Before, I used to design whatever, up until around 1985," Worland said. "But then I realized that this vastu design is kind of like a building code for good fortune and prosperity. If I'm not designing something that's properly vastu, I'm designing something that might not be best for my client. The architect or designer actually has the ability to design good fortune for people."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.

Vedic is defined as related to Veda, ancient sacred Hindu texts. Sthapatya Veda is the table of knowledge in these texts that refers to building structures and homes, and Vastu refers to how a house is properly located to follow those principles.