5 Ancient Remedies from Vishwakarma Prakash for Modern Apartment Defects

We live in boxes made of concrete and steel, stacked hundreds of feet in the air. These spaces often break every rule written in ancient texts like the Vishwakarma Prakash—the legendary treatise on Indian architecture. The ancient sages wrote for people building on open land, where you could choose where your front door went. They didn’t anticipate shared plumbing shafts or L-shaped apartments wrapping around a lift lobby.

But here is the good news: while the structure has changed, the energy principles haven’t.

You don’t need a sledgehammer to fix your apartment’s “doshas” (defects). You just need to understand element balance. Over the years, I’ve helped hundreds of families harmonize their homes using non-destructive remedies. We work with the space, not against it.

Here are the first two major remedies that deal with the most common apartment defects I see.

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1. The Mirror Remedy: Healing the “Cut” Corner

If you look at the floor plan of most modern apartments, they are rarely perfect squares or rectangles. To fit more units onto a floor, builders create L-shapes, C-shapes, or staggered layouts. In Vastu terms, this creates a “cut” or a “missing corner.”

Think of your house as a living body—the Vastu Purusha. If the North-East corner is missing, it’s like the house is missing its head (which governs clarity and luck). If the South-West is cut, it lacks legs (stability).

The Real-Life Scenario

A few years ago, I visited a young couple, Anjali and Dev, in a beautiful flat in Bangalore. They were arguing constantly and felt “stuck” in their careers. When I looked at their layout, their apartment was an L-shape that completely cut out the North zone—the zone of opportunity and career growth. To them, that space just didn’t exist.

The Fix: Virtual Expansion

Since we couldn’t build a room in the air outside their balcony, we used an optical illusion to “trick” the energy.

We placed a large, frameless mirror on the inner wall facing the missing North section.

Why this works: In the Vishwakarma Prakash, space (Akasha) is the primary element. A mirror creates depth. When you look into that mirror, your brain—and the energy of the house—registers depth and space where there was previously a wall. It energetically “completes” the missing square of the floor plan.

How to Do It Right:

• Size Matters: Don’t use a tiny shaving mirror. You want a mirror that covers a significant portion of the wall to simulate a “window” or extension.
• Placement is Key: This remedy is fantastic for missing North or East corners.
• The Big Warning: Be very careful using this for South or West cuts. Mirrors represent the Water element. Placing a huge water element in the South (Fire zone) can cause more conflicts than it solves. If you have a South cut, we usually use Earth-element corrections (like heavy rocks or yellow colors) instead.

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2. The Sea Salt Cure: Managing the Misplaced Toilet

This is the “elephant in the room” for 90% of apartment owners.

Builders stack toilets on top of each other to align the plumbing pipes. This means you often end up with a toilet in the North-East (the God corner/Ishanya) or the South-West (the Relationship/Stability corner).

In ancient times, the solution was simple: “Move the toilet.” In a modern flat? Moving a toilet is a plumbing nightmare that involves permission from the society, risks of leakage, and huge costs.

The “Sponge” Technique

If you have a toilet in a sensitive zone, the biggest issue is that the negative energy generated there (decay) starts to pollute the pure energy of that zone.

The remedy is shockingly simple and costs less than a coffee: Sea Salt.

How It Works:

Salt is arguably the most powerful cleansing tool in our ancestral toolkit. You’ll see it used in everything from grand temple rituals to grandma’s attempts to ward off the “evil eye.”

Scientifically, salt is hygroscopic—it absorbs moisture. Energetically, it is believed to act like a sponge for heavy, stagnant vibrations. By placing salt in the toilet, you are essentially creating a “trap” for the negative energy, stopping it from leaking out into your living room or bedroom.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Get the Right Salt: Do not use the refined table salt you put on your fries. You need raw, unrefined sea salt (often called rock salt or khada namak). It usually comes in chunky crystals.
2. The Container: Use a glass or ceramic bowl. Avoid metal, as the salt will corrode it over time.
3. Placement: Place the bowl on a shelf, the windowsill, or the top of the flush tank. It doesn’t need to be hidden, but it should be out of splash range.
4. The “Flush” Rule (Crucial!): This salt is absorbing toxicity. Do not touch it with your bare hands when you change it. Every week (or every 10 days), dump the old salt directly into the toilet and flush it away. Wash the bowl and refill it with fresh salt.

This doesn’t “move” the toilet, but it contains the defect. I’ve had clients report that the “heavy” feeling in their home lifted within two weeks of doing just this one small thing.

3. The Metal Strip Technique: The “Invisible” Door Correction

In a standalone house, if the main door is in a “negative” zone—like the South-South-West (often associated with wastage and disposal)—we would physically move the door frame to a better spot.

In an apartment? You can’t exactly chisel a new hole in the hallway wall without the Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) sending you a legal notice.

So, if you are stuck with an entrance that isn’t ideal, or if you just want to insulate your home from the chaotic energy of the common corridor, we use the Metal Strip Technique.

The “Circuit Breaker” Logic

Think of the floor as a conductive wire carrying earth energies into your home. If that energy is negative (based on the direction), we need to “cut” the wire.

We do this by inserting a specific metal strip directly into the floor, right under the door threshold. It acts as an energetic dam. It separates the energy of the outside world from your inner sanctuary without you ever having to unhinge the door.

Which Metal Goes Where?

This is where people often get it wrong. You can’t just use any metal; it has to align with the elemental zone of your door.

• For North & West Doors (Space & Air Zones): We use Stainless Steel or Iron. These metals are cool and dense, grounding the airy, sometimes erratic energy of the North-West.
• For East & South-East Doors (Fire & Air Zones): We use Copper. Copper is an excellent conductor and resonates with the Fire element, helping to regulate the flow of energy in these active zones.
• For South & South-West Doors (Earth Zones): We use Brass. Brass has a heavy, stabilizing quality (associated with the Earth element) that is perfect for blocking the intense, sometimes harsh energy of the South.

The Practical “How-To”

You don’t always need to dig up your expensive Italian marble.

1. The Invasive Way: A carpenter cuts a thin slit (about 3-4mm wide) in the floor stone under the door and hammers the metal strip in until it’s flush with the floor.
2. The Renter-Friendly Way: You can buy adhesive metal tapes (Copper/Brass tape) online. Stick a strip neatly on top of the threshold. It’s not as permanent, but it works surprisingly well for tenants.

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4. The “Green Slab” Fix: Cooling the Fire-Water Clash

This is a remedy I find myself prescribing almost every week. Modern architectural layouts love to put kitchens in the North or North-East because that’s often where the utility balcony is.

However, according to Vishwakarma Prakash, the North is the realm of the Water element. A kitchen is the realm of Fire (Agni).

When you put Fire in a Water zone, you get a “clash.” In real life, I’ve noticed this often manifests as two things in a household:

1. Health issues: Specifically related to digestion or blood (fire in the body).
2. Financial “evaporation”: Money comes in, but burns up immediately on unexpected expenses.

The Elemental Bridge

We can’t turn the stove into water, and we can’t turn the North zone into fire. But we can introduce a mediator: Wood.

In the cycle of elements (Pancha Bhoota), Water feeds Wood, and Wood feeds Fire. By introducing the Wood element, we turn a destructive cycle (Water kills Fire) into a productive one (Water -> Wood -> Fire).

The Fix: The Green Marble

You don’t need to renovate the whole kitchen. You just need a slab of Green Marble (like Udaipur Green).

• Placement: Place a small square of green marble specifically under your gas stove or hob. It acts as the “Wood” foundation (Green = Wood color).
• Alternative: If you can’t find marble, even a fire-resistant green mat or painting the small area under the stove green can help. But stone is best because it connects to the earth.

I once worked with a client, Mrs. Iyer, who had severe acidity issues and a North-facing kitchen. We placed a green slab under her stove. It wasn’t magic—her acidity didn’t vanish overnight—but the frantic, heated energy in the house calmed down, and she eventually found the right doctor to treat her. Sometimes, Vastu is just about clearing the obstacles so the right solution can reach you.

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5. The Crystal Lotus: Breathing Life into the Heavy Center

In the old courtyard homes (Havelis), the center of the house—the Brahmasthan—was open to the sky. It was the “lungs” of the house.

In a modern 3BHK, the center of the house is usually a dark hallway, a heavy dining table, or worse, a wall. When the center is blocked, the house can’t “breathe.” Residents often report feeling lethargic, as if the air in the house is stale, no matter how much they ventilate.

The Solution: Artificial Light and Expansion

Since we cannot punch a hole in the ceiling of your 5th-floor apartment, we use Crystals.

Leaded glass crystals (like the ones used in chandeliers) have a unique property: they fracture light into a rainbow spectrum. Energetically, this mimics the expansion of space.

The Remedy

1. The Crystal Lotus: Buy a clear crystal lotus flower. Place it on the center of your dining table or on a small shelf as close to the physical center of the apartment as possible.
2. The Logic: The lotus shape represents unfolding and purity. The crystal material disperses energy outward, pushing back against the “heavy” compression of the walls.

Pro Tip: If your Brahmasthan is dark, keep a small lamp or tea light burning near this crystal for a few hours in the evening. Light activates the crystal, effectively creating a “mini-sun” in the heart of your home.

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Harmony is a Choice, Not a Demolition Project

If there is one thing I want you to take away from this, it’s that you are not a victim of your floor plan.

The Vishwakarma Prakash was written by masters who understood that our environment shapes our consciousness. But they also understood adaptability. They didn’t demand perfection; they sought balance.

Living in a high-rise apartment comes with compromises. You might not have the perfect East entrance or the open central courtyard. But by using these elemental corrections—Mirrors for space, Salt for cleansing, Metal for blocking, Stone for balancing, and Crystals for expansion—you are taking ownership of your space.

Your Weekend Action Plan:

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t try to do all five at once. Start small:

1. This Saturday: Buy a packet of sea salt and place it in your bathroom.
2. Next Week: Check your kitchen. If it’s in the North, look for a green stone or mat.
3. Next Month: Assess your corners and doors.

Your home should be the place where you recharge, not a battery that drains you. With a few small tweaks, you can turn even the most concrete-heavy apartment into a sanctuary of peace.

Quick Vastu-Check Table for Buyers/Renters

If you are looking at a new flat, use this “Traffic Light” system:

Feature	Green Light (Go)	Yellow Light (Check Fixes)	Red Light (Avoid)
Entrance	North, East, North-East	West, South-East	South-West (Avoid if possible)
Kitchen	South-East	North-West	North-East (Major health risk)
Master Bed	South-West	South, West	North-East, South-East
Shape	Square, Rectangle	Slight projection	L-Shape, C-Shape, Round

Namaste.