An Introduction to our Work...
There are several special and unique aspects to the Indian perspective of reality and the meaning making created out of its cultural assumptions. One of the most significant is the nature of the hero that is reinforced in its culture. In India it has always been the householder or the ordinary family man/woman, unlike the warrior of the West or the wandering monk of China. In the ordinary every day existence of the householder amidst his commonplace concerns there must be a quality of transcendence and an inner unfolding. Dharma must be discovered and lived in the family and the market place in the midst of a community, in the here and now.
The primary focus of our work has been to unfold the creativity of individuals and groups; through offering an appropriate culture for the individuality to grow constantly and, to address the overall health of both the individuals and the system.
In a recent interaction with some Feng Shui experts, I was asked this question ‘why do Indians let go of all their traditions without adequate study?’ I was forced to accept this about us – that we do not respect our own past without assurances and encouragement from our colonial masters. Perhaps this is a necessary residue of being a conquered people, or a lacuna in our own psychical makeup.
We are very concerned with the polarisation that seems to have emerged between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. We strongly believe that if the best of the tradition should survive the ravages of time, then the quintessence should be judiciously blended with contemporary pushes and pulls. If the negativity and ill health of modernity should be healed, then the contemporary concerns have to stop and listen to the wisdom of the land and its ancestors.
The middle path is always a difficult one. It requires the seeker to constantly look inward for resources, and look outward for a reality appraisal. In this endeavour, we have attempted to work with the individual harmony (including our own) as well as the checks and balances that are essential for a healthy systemic growth.
The path ahead: Our current work is to develop refine and apply the process we call “Vaastu Healing”, which implies the holistic integrative understanding of the individual as well as the physical and psychological spaces he / she occupies. Vaastu Healing will be the vehicle for delivering what we refer to as “Dharma through living” – a process of discovering right living & right livelihood.
Vaastu Healing comprises of a set of practices that will help the individual harmonise the home and the self, evolve a personal practice that is introspective and engage in work roles with vitality and conviction. We believe that both individual work and collective dialogue are critical aspects of the practice.
We hope to make “Vaastu Healing” both a web university as well as a physical centre where the individual and a group can come together to reflect and discover inner and outer unfolding and a convergence between ancient wisdom and contemporary reality. Some theories and philosophies of traditional India have played an important role in shaping the individual and the collective.
The individual consciousness or the Jivatma (or vastu) and its connection to the universal consciousness or Paramatma (or vaastu) is a very fundamental concept. Out of the awakening of the individual and the sensitising of the Jivatma the meaning of life and the eternal nature of existence are connected. Many practices have been recommended for this awakening to take place, such as work, art, devotion and intellectual understanding. - Being an artist and experiencing the beauty of the path of creating artistic manifestations be it as a visual artist or as a musician.
- Through the path of dedicated action in the world, known as Karma Yoga. In either of these paths the focus is on the person’s relationship to himself/herself, to work and resources as well as to the collective. The Indian artist has always been one who went back to the marketplace to offer his/her wares to people in the form of craft and useful household items.