Pooja room is the most divine place in our house it is the only place that has the ability to purify and charge our aura to uplift us spiritually and make us a better person altogether to survive and live this life happily, A Pooja Room is considered as the epicenter of positive energy because this room allows us to connect with our higher self/god, hence it is very important to follow the Vastu advice accordingly which many people are considering to be important nowadays.
DIRECTION
● As you can see from the image above the best direction for puja room is the Northeast direction because it is considered as Eshanya kon that is GOD’S CORNER, this direction is specially meant for puja room/prayer room and it can also be used as a meditation room for spiritual upliftment
Why North-East direction is called the Gods direction?
According to Vastu Shastra, the northeast direction represent the water element. There are many quality of water as many of us might have heard a very famous quotation from Bruce Lee “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” So it is quite clear that when we put our focus on the northeast direction, having prayers room and receive the divine energy from the northeast direction helps us to transform our life just like water filling the potholes thrown in the road of our life.
● Now the second-best direction for puja room is north or east direction as shown in the image however even on these corners do consider placing the god’s idol/ images in the northeastern corner.
FACINGS
● Inside our home god’s idol or image should be placed in such a way that we are facing either north or east direction while performing prayer.
● However, if possible, we should try facing the north or East direction instead of directly facing the exact northeast axis while performing prayer because the northeast is called the Eshanya kon that is God’s corner and it also represents the water-related element so keeping it directly in the axis is not advisable.
Colour
- As Puja room is present in the direction of Eshanya kon this area represents water-related element so the best colors to paint this room is all light color’s similar to water like white, sky blue, etc
- Avoid painting the puja room in darker colors.
Do’s
• The best practice is to keep an image rather than idols because there are certain rules of keeping an idol at home. In case you are keeping a god’s idol inside the home make sure it is not above the height of 9 inches and not below the height of 2 inches.
● Keep the idol or image over a bench or a table, the best practice is to keep the idol at such height that when you sit and pray the idol is aligned with your heart chakra that is keeping it at a height between your elbow till neck as shown in the image above.
● Keep the idols at least 1 inch away from the wall
● Keep Diya / candles in the southeast corner of the puja room because the southeastern corner is considered Aagni kon which is a fire element.
DON’T
- Avoid keeping dead people’s image in Pooja room, even though we like to offer our prayers to our ancestors or any dead member of our family for the peace of their soul or for their blessings but according to Vastu shastra keeping dead people image right next to the god’s image or idols brings bad luck and declines prosperity of the family however you can offer your prayers to your ancestors in the puja room but avoid images because Puja room/ mandir is all about energies and the northeast direction which is called Eshanya kon, this direction is itself an epicenter of divine energy, in other term this room has its own aura of energy ready to be received by every object and thing which is inside the room, so keeping an image of a heavenly person surrounded by such energy is neither good for you nor it is good for their soul.
- Idols or images of god should not face each other
- According to Vastu minimal amount of gods, images and idols should be kept in the puja room. In Hindu tradition Many people tend to keep multiple gods images and idols in one puja room, we must understand that many Hindu gods represent different types of energy, for example, Bramha, Vishnu, and Mahesh represent creation, preservation, and destruction( transformation ) respectively, the type of god you worship/ pray, etc determines the type of energy you attract at a particular time so keeping/ worshiping multiple gods(energy) all together at once is just like adding a similar amount of chillis, a similar amount of sugar and a similar amount of salt all together to one dish.
- Avoid keeping a mandir/puja room inside your bedroom because the bedroom is meant for resting, married couples also fulfill their physical desires in this room so this room remains contaminated and not suitable for the puja room.
- Pooja room should not be below a staircase because according to Vastu a staircase increases or decreases the energy of the area wherever it is built depending on the rotation of the staircase.
- A Toilet should not be above or below the puja room it creates a major Vastu Dosh.
- Puja room should not share the same wall with the bathroom or toilet
- Puja room should not be inside someone’s bedroom
- Gods’ idol or images should not be kept on the floor
Remedies
- Ancestors’ images can be kept in all neutral rooms of the house like the living room, dining room, hall, etc, the southwest corner of the house is considered the most favorable place for hanging dead ancestors’ images.
- If your puja room is inside your bedroom then this room should be used by elderly grandparents only who are involved in spiritual practices and who are not engaged in sexual activities, however.
- If the puja room is used by people other than the elderly of the family members then do make a separate closet for the puja room and try to keep it closed during non-puja hours as shown in the image above
- If your puja room is below a toilet or is in the northwest direction then the best remedy is to remove it from this areas and built it in a correct direction according to Vastu, because this can cause a very major Vastu dosh which will be experienced by the family living in that House.
- If you have multiple gods idol or images kept together in the puja room and want to reduce them according to Vastu then you can donate those image or simply offer it to any holy river.