Introduction
Look at any tree reflected in still water, and you will see it upside down. Roots at the top, branches dipping into the earth below. Strange thought, isn't it?
Now open the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, and you will find Krishna describing a tree exactly like that. Not a metaphor about reflections. A real teaching about how energy moves through the universe, and through your home.
This is the Ashvattha tree. Sages have discussed it for thousands of years. Dr. Jayshree Om builds her entire Vastu Shastra book, Peetham: Energize Your Space, Energize Your Mind, around this one idea: your home works like that tree.
Once you understand which way the energy flows, you stop guessing about why some rooms feel heavy, and others feel light.
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Key takeaways
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Krishna Described an Upside-Down Tree, and He Meant It Literally
Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Gita opens with a verse that has puzzled readers for centuries: oordhvamoolam adhah-shaakham ashvattham praahur-avyayam. Translated, Krishna says sages speak of an eternal Ashvattha tree with its roots above and its branches below, its leaves being the Vedas themselves.
No tree grows like that. That's exactly the point. The image isn't botanical. It's a map of where existence comes from and where it ends up.
Think about a family tree for a second. The founder sits at the top of the chart, and every generation branches downward from there. An org chart works the same way, with the CEO at the top and departments spreading below. You already think in upside-down trees more often than you realise.
Roots Above, Branches Below: What It Actually Means
In the Gita's image, the roots represent the unseen, unchanging source of everything: pure consciousness, the divine, whatever name a tradition gives it. The branches represent the visible world we live in every day, the world of work, relationships, deadlines, and traffic.
Ashvattha itself is a compound word. One reading breaks it down to mean “that which will not remain the same even tomorrow.” The material world, in other words, is the part of the tree that keeps changing. The root, above, is the part that doesn't.
That's a big philosophical claim to sit with. Here's the practical version Vastu Shastra takes from it: your physical space is a branch. It's downstream of something bigger. And the way you arrange that branch, its direction, its objects, its openings, decides how much of that root energy actually reaches you.
Your Home Is Working the Same Way
Vastu Shastra treats your house the way Chapter 15 treats the universe: a structure fed from above and expressed below. The North-East corner, called Ishaan, is traditionally treated as the point where subtle, spiritual energy enters a home first, the way the root feeds the tree. From there it should move freely through the rest of the house.
When a heavy cupboard blocks that corner, or a toilet sits where the entrance energy should flow, the system doesn't collapse overnight. It just leaks. You feel it as low-grade things: sleep that doesn't quite refresh you, an argument that returns every few weeks, a room nobody wants to sit in.
Dr. Jayshree Om doesn't ask you to break down that wall or move the toilet. That's the entire premise of Peetham. Drawing from the Atharva Veda and Tantra Sadhana, the book reinterprets Vastu for people who rent, who live in flats, or who simply can't demolish anything. Awareness and alignment do the work that construction used to.
What a Peetham Really Does to a Room
A peetham, in the Vastu sense, is a seat or base, a fixed point that anchors energy the way the trunk anchors a tree between root and branch. It's the same principle behind why a temple always has a defined sanctum, why a puja space sits in a specific spot in traditional homes, and why some corners of a house feel steadier than others once you place the right object there.
Dr. Jayshree Om's book takes that one idea and turns it into a full system: colours, symbols, Yantras, and object placement, each acting as a small peetham that steadies the energy passing through a room. None of it requires structural change. It asks you to notice what's already there and adjust it.
The book also includes Vid-Vāg-Vā, a Vastu learning game built on the familiar tic-tac-toe format. It's a small, playable way to internalise which directions carry which kind of energy, something most Vastu books only explain in dense paragraphs. You can read the theory, or you can sit with your family for ten minutes and actually feel the directions make sense.
Five Vastu Remedies You Can Start Today
You don't need the whole book in hand to begin. A few starting points, all drawn from the same no-demolition philosophy:
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Clear the North-East corner. Even one blocked corner slows the entire flow Chapter 15 describes. An energised Yantra placed here gives that entry point a steady anchor.
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Rethink colour in the South-West. This zone governs stability and relationships in most Vastu frameworks. Warm browns and earthy neutrals support it far better than sharp reds or black.
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Keep your main door genuinely clear. Shoes piled against it, a dead plant beside it, a dim bulb above it: small things, but the entrance is where new energy is supposed to walk in first.
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Store valuables toward the South. A Manjusha, a traditional copper box, works well here and is a common Vastu remedy for steady savings.
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Play the direction game with your family. Vid-Vāg-Vā turns an abstract concept into something a ten-year-old can grasp in one sitting.
Conclusion
An upside-down tree sounds like a riddle until you realise you're already living inside one. Your home receives energy from somewhere above and expresses it in the rooms below, exactly the way Krishna described the universe doing it in Chapter 15. Peetham simply gives that ancient idea a floor plan.
You don't have to renovate to feel the difference. You have to notice where the root meets the branch in your own house, and place the right anchor there.
Get Your Copy of Peetham Today
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Why is the tree in the Bhagavad Gita described as upside down?
A: Krishna uses the image in Chapter 15 to show that the visible, changing world (the branches) grows out of an unseen, unchanging source (the roots). It's a teaching device, not a description of an actual plant.
Q: What does the Ashvattha tree symbolize in Vastu Shastra?
A: It symbolizes energy flowing from a higher, unseen source into a lower, physical space, which is the same framework Vastu uses to explain how directions and objects inside a home affect the people living in it.
Q: What is a Peetham in Vastu Shastra?
A: A Peetham is a fixed seat or anchor point, similar to how a temple sanctum or a puja corner steadies spiritual energy in one spot. In the home, objects like Yantras or copper boxes can serve the same anchoring role.
Q: Can Vastu problems really be corrected without demolition?
A: Yes. Dr. Jayshree Om's Peetham focuses on non-structural corrections such as colour, direction, symbols, and object placement, which is why it works for rented flats and existing homes where breaking walls isn't an option.
Q: Is the Peetham book available in Hindi as well as English?
A: Yes, Peetham is published in both English and Hindi, and is also available as part of a Vastu combo alongside Vastu Remedies: Manifest Your Dreams.
Q: How does home energy affect mental peace according to Vastu Shastra?
A: Vastu holds that blocked or misaligned energy in key zones like the North-East or South-West shows up as restlessness, poor sleep, or repeated friction at home, while correcting those zones supports calmer, steadier daily life.
