Healing Our Environments, Healing Ourselves

Bhaskar Alan Deva is a Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra consultant and trainer. He enjoyed a lengthy and close "apprenticeship" with Sri Gurudev for 17 years, serving as one his monks, main builders of Yogaville, and as Sri Gurudev's airplane pilot. He talks openly and with great heart about his experiences.

Integral Yoga Magazine: What is your view of our relationship to our environment and to the world?

Bhaskar Deva: We are very essential part of the whole, but still just a part of the whole. If you are in the center, everything has to go the way you plan it. But, if you are part of the whole, if you are just orbiting around, then Nature, God, Divinity, is taking its course and you are just a part of it.

IYM: So, that is a shift in consciousness, really, to think of it in those different terms.

BD:Yes. It's a total shift in consciousness. We like to think of ourselves as the center of the whole. It is very limiting and it's very painful because we can't control everything, even though we try! A step toward enlightenment--for me, in my limited understanding--is having a bigger picture, of knowing the greatness of everything and everyone and knowing that you are part of that. We are all on this ride together. The vehicle is the earth. We are on this ride and every year, we make another loop around the sun. But, then, the sun is moving, too. It is quite a ride!

IYM: What is the effect upon us during this "ride?"

BD: Our physical environment has a large effect upon us. On the physical plane, we are always affected by the magnetic field--by attraction and repulsion. But, fortunately, we have more than one body. We have the pranic body. We have the intuitive body.

If we stay identified with the physical body, then we are limited. The body is just the vehicle. Sri Gurudev always said that when we think we are the car, then we think that we are big and powerful, and that we are different from another car. But, we can think of our higher nature and reside in it. The more we can nurture our inner heart, our inner love, our inner peace, and the more that we can create a sacred environment, the stronger that influence is. Then, it allows us to reside in a higher place.

IYM: Does everything in our environment have an effect?

BD: Even the environment of our clothing affects one's personality. If you ever dress up and go out to a fancy place, it changes your mood and your experience. If you are cleaning the garage and are wearing funky clothes, that can draw your energy in another way.

IYM: Is that why Yogis generally wear white?

BD: Yes, it reflects a certain consciousness. You can't wear white and do just anything. You have to keep your consciousness very heightened. That is what Yoga is. It is a heightened consciousness that raises itself.

IYM: Is it important for the health of the body and mind to carefully arrange one's space or to purify it?

BD: In India, before anybody builds anything, they get the Vastu person to tell them where to put it, how it should face. That is just part of the life there. Because when you are in a nice environment, there is synergy that happens. You and the environment, including your friends and your family, build on the energy. This is very nurturing and very powerful...