Saturday, August 25, 2012

COLORS AND VASTU


COLORS AND VASTU:

COLORS also symbolize the PRINCIPLE OF LIVING IN HARMONY WITH THE EARTH. Colors pacify our mind and stimulate energy. The colors have significant effect on our mood, health and happiness. The impact of colors on us is emotional, intellectual, materialistic, physical and intuitive. Color Theory offers a way to enhance nearly every aspect of our lives through improving our moods and stimulating our minds, increasing our effectiveness at work and in society and creating better physical and mental health.
Colors affect various domains of our life including food, clothing, the living place, transportation, education and recreation. Wise arrangement of color will help to increase the happiness, enhance wealth and marital harmony.
Color inspires emotion. Color structures our behavior.
Pink and Green conveys vitality, Red symbolizes justice, White represents pureness and Black denotes a sense of awe, grandeur and depth. No color is universally is useful in all cultures for the maintenance of internal harmony within individuals and external harmony between them and nature.
All permutations, from cosmic to atomic, resound in us and the force that links us with color is energy or cosmic breath. Energy is the non-biological self, i.e., our spirit, our psyche, our essence. Without energy, we are nearly flesh and bones. Energy is the breath essential to maintaining physical, environmental, and emotional balance. In a sense, it is destiny, blue print of our personality, talent and life course.
Color also can harmonize and balance our energy and thus improve our life and destiny. For any form known to exist, it must possess color and we know that out of the void of the Universe come all things. Harmony and balance are desirable in our physical and emotional makeup and in our environment. Out of the balance and harmonizing of positive and negative forces arises energy, the most essential feature of life. Life and human energy is greatly affected by color.
Color also indicates cardinal directions, seasons, the cyclical passage of time, and the internal organs of the human body. Color is regarded as a manifestation of cosmic energy, vitality that can also shape an individual’s personal energy and therefore, their destiny. Adding a new color to an environment can stimulate a positive or negative response.
Colors describe emotional properties. We feel blue or green with envy, red with shyness; describe someone as "a yellow-coward". The properties of color are both emotional and physical. The direct impact of color on our existence is easy to understand. Some colors make us happy, other colors make us sink into gloom, and some other relax, distract or energize us. Color is a manifestation of light and energy, a good color can depend on your mood of the day. If you select a color that harmonizes with your energy then you will flourish. If the color clashes with your mood, that color will irritate you. Whatever we look upon and see through our eyes will, through our optic nerve, send sensory signals to our body, to react to what our eyes see. Therefore, the colors of everything our eyes come in contact will influence our temperament, physical movements, language and thoughts, in short, our lives.
Five elements of nature, i.e., Air, Fire, Earth, Water and Space are responsible for generating positive and negative energies. These five elements are not physical substances but powers or essences describing all matter and all attributes. These elements are also associated with colors, seasons, directions and organs. For example, the elements -
'Fire' is associated with red, summer, the south, the heart.
'Earth' positioned at the center, stands for yellow, oranges, or brown, mid-autumn, etc. and the liver.
 'Air' is blue autumn, north and the lungs and gall bladder it gets, winter, the west, and the kidneys.
Space is shapeless, colorless and has North-East direction effects mind and cells.

South East Color--Purple, Blue and Red
South West--Pink, Red, White
Center Of Place--Yellow, Earth Tones
North East-- Blues, Green
North West--Gray, Silver

A rainbow sighted in the east indicates fine weather, while to the west it means rain. A red sky in the morning will foretell an afternoon shower, while a red sky at night will mean a clear sky. A halo around the moon indicates wind.
These can be employed in all areas of our lives; the colors of homes, offices, clothes, food, even our cars as well as in adjusting our personalities and vitality. Its role is both determining good and bad, improving the luck of a site and residence in which we live.
Following colors are, therefore, proposed for improving 'Vastu' of a building:
1)       Purple - Purple, deep red, or plum is an equally auspicious color. It is said to inspire Respect.
2)       Yellow-Yellow or gold stands for Power. Yellow gives a sense of Tolerance, Patience, and Wisdom gained from experience.
3)        Green - Green represents Tranquility, Hope, and Freshness. In plants and vegetation, green indicates good and healthy earth energies.
4)       Blue - Blue or indigo symbolizes Spring, New Growth, and Hope. However, blue is also a cold, secondary and mourning color.
5)       Blue - Green - Blue-green mint, or aqua are more Auspicious than indigo as they are more closely aligned with the colors of nature and spring. In general, vitality represents verdant youth.
6)       Black - On the positive side, black - or any dark color - gives a feeling of depth, both in mood and perspective. Yet black indicates a Lack of Hope, and it may make us feel "Dark" low and Depressed.
7)       Gray - Gray is an ambiguous - or gray area. To some, gray, like a dismal cloudy day, keynotes Frustration and Hopelessness .To other, it is positive and signifies Balance and the Resolution.
8)       Brown - Brown gives us a heavy feeling; the color can be used to create a stable, established impression and a sense of the passage of time. It symbolizes the Depth and Elegancy.
9)       Tan - Tan or cafe represents a new, successful beginning. Out of seeming Hopelessness, a new possibility arises.
10)    Orange - Orange, as a mixture of red and yellow and yellow, is Auspicious and is imbued with the characteristics of Happiness and Power.
11)    Pink - Pink represents Love and Pure Feelings, Joy, Happiness, and Romance.
12)    Peach - It is the color representing Attraction and Love.

EXTERIOR COLORS OF HOUSE
The colors of a house and the face it presents should be uplifting. The effect of such colors on us is immediate and intuitive. The color and condition of a house exterior can also affect its inhabitants.
EXTERIOR DECORATION THROUGH WINDOW - BOXES
Exterior color schemes need not be limited to outside walls and windows. The color of window boxes is another element of a building’s facade. The best window box color is one that has a creative relationship with casement color. The color of the box should always be different from that of the window casement.
OUR HOUSE - INTERIOR COLOR SCHEME
 General ideas of appropriate colors have been given here to help enhance the specific room's atmosphere and use.
BEDROOM - Pink is best for the master bedroom. Pink is also an auspicious color. Light green and light blue are also fine for bedrooms, as they are color of hope and cultivation.
Plain white sheets or white sheets with flowers or colorful designs are fine. Pink or red sheets and blankets are used by those who want to get married as well as by newlyweds desirous of ensuring marital bliss. Yellow is fine for the elderly.
For young children, education is important and therefore, green color. Black is fine for furniture to encourage deep thoughts.
LIVING ROOM- The living room should be full of colors, shades, and patterns. As the place to entertain guests, the living room should be of pleasant visual stimuli to keep the atmosphere and conversations lively and diverse. The best colors are yellow, beige or tan, or green or blue.
MEDITATION ROOM - If there is a meditation room, an austere setting is best: solid, calm, subdued colors, with no patterns. Subtle and deep shades of blue, green, yellow, or red will encourage deep concentration and thoughts.
LIBRARY - The best color, however, depends on the type of books that the residents like to read. If they prefer serious books, brown is an appropriate shade. For less serious readers, pale blue, light green or pink are good.
DINING ROOM - Dining rooms, where the family eats and entertains, should be appetizingly colorful. Pinks, greens, and blues are best. Avoid black, white, or a mixture of black and white. These colors are less conducive to enjoying eating.
KITCHEN - In a kitchen, white is the best color, it show off the colors of food, as if it were a blank canvas upon which the cook creates a meal of red tomatoes, green peppers, yellow squash. Besides, it is also the color of purity and cleanliness.
BATH ROOM - It can be white or gray. Pink and other pastel colors are also good.

COLOR OF PUBLIC PLACES
The colors of public places - parks, mountains, parkways, rest areas and gardens should be both lively and vibrant and arranged in ways we do not see normally. This enlivens our energy and increases our happiness and pleasure. In general, the best color choices for a large building such as skyscraper are white or coffee, gold or yellow, or earth colored. The lower levels and base can be of white while the top floors can be green with red accents, suggesting the upper reaches of a tree laden with fruit, its good luck and prosperity.

ROADS
Roads and roadside colors are also important. Highways should ideally have shoulders and dividers with abundant greenery and flowers to keep the drivers mind stimulated and awake and generally to inspire.

SCHOOLS AND BUSINESS
Colors, full of life force - green, blue, bluish-purple, reddish-purple  stimulate the brain, providing access to energy. Such colors help them to work hard and concentrate.
From ancient times to the present, the color of nature have provided a calming and invigorating stimulus to our bodies and minds, enhancing our emotions, speech, and nervous system, the reds, blues, greens, yellows and whites of trees, flowers, and earth help to inspire and regenerate our energy.
All colors of nature are highly evocative. Today, life is complicated and confusing, and our minds can become unsettled and weighed down by work, daily activities, and struggles. Therefore, we need to take vacations regularly to rest and travel, to go to the mountains or seashore to regenerate ourselves. We need to see colors we do not normally see often, to bring balance to our minds and bodies and to stimulate our energy. This colorful change is, in a sense, enjoyment.