Vasthu shasthra is as secular as Feng shui
According to a story doing the rounds these day, the reason behind the precipitous fall of the rupee is neither Government mismanagement nor the Greek debacle. It has nothing to do with India’s increasing fiscal deficit either, or with its slowing growth rate. Instead, it is the currency’s symbol that is to blame. Apparently, it is not Vaastu-compliant. According to some Vaastu consultants, the horizontal line that cuts through the rupee symbol “slits the throat of the currency” and hence has led to its downfall. The story of course has had many people in splits, and at a time when India’s dismal economic outlook gives little reason to cheer, there is perhaps nothing terribly wrong with having a good laugh. But jokes apart, Vaastu is no laughing matter. It is an ancient science with a proven track record that has stood the test of time. Like any other science, it is a systematic enterprise that organises information relating to how the laws of nature affect human dwellings in the form of rational explanations that can be repeatedly tested to produce the same results. Essentially, Vaastu shashtra combines all the five elements of nature — aakash (sky), agni (fire), bhumi (earth), jal (water) and vayu (air) — and takes advantage of the benefits endowed by each of these elements so as to create a congenial living environment for humankind. There is logic, there is reason and there is a testable causal relationship. Yet, today Vaastu stands dismissed by a section of the people as being superstitious mumbo jumbo. It is against this backdrop that the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development’s decision to not support any Vaastu course in Indian universities must be viewed. The Ministry, in association with the University Grants Commission (the nodal organisation for higher education in India) has recently kick-started an ambitious vocational education programme but has specifically decided not to support any Vaastu course — possibly because it is not a ‘modern science’. If this is indeed the case, it is downright absurd and only reflects on the narrow mindset of those in charge of guiding India’s education policy. Clearly neither the HRD Ministry nor the UGC has any clue of what exactly Vaastu is all about. And so they callously perpetuate their own half-baked ideas as knowledge while imposing their own prejudices on the rest of the country. To make matters worse, the campaign against Vaastu has become a political tool to further pseudo-secularism of the kind that the Congress has propagated in the past six decades. The decision to keep Vaastu away from classrooms is supposedly aimed at preventing the ‘saffronisation’ of Indian education. This is meaningless rhetoric. Vaastu has Hindu roots but it has nothing to do with religious beliefs. Besides, secularism does not mean disregarding all religions; it means accepting all as equal. However, such logic is lost upon most of our politicians. Finally, apart from the politics of it all, there is also the issue of practicality. In recent times, Vaastu has seen a revival in the country. Many people today insist on Vaastu-compliant homes and offices, and virtually every builder assures buyers of ‘Vaastu-compliancy’. Are we to assume, therefore, that all these builders and buyers are saffronised or that their secular credentials have taken a beating just when it comes to finalising a deal for a new residence?
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