Reminiscing about his ancestral home in south India where he spent several years of his childhood, Nitin Madhav recalls the tranquility that filled the house his great-grandfather built. So it's not surprising that he furnished his Washington, D.C., townhouse with Indian antiques. What he didn't know until recently, however, is that his great-grandfather's home was built according to the principles of vastu, or vaastu, the ancient Hindu science of harmonious design. As it happened, the townhouse-which he bought because it felt 'right' and then redecorated in ways that simply made sense to him-fits well with vastu practice. For instance, he placed a lily pond northeast of his front door, exactly the place that would be prescribed by a vastu consultant.

Vastu is a 4,000-year-old spiritual philosophy, which may have been the precursor to the Chinese tradition of feng shui. It aims to create positive living and working environments by harmonizing a building according to spiritual principles and natural laws. The tradition is based on the idea that when energy flows smoothly through a space, it feels serene and balanced-becoming a place you love to be.

Though vastu is far less well known in the United States than is feng shui, at least four books on the subject have been published recently, with more in the works. Consultants, architects, and builders trained in vastu are now spreading the word about this age-old art.

'Vastu helps you create environments that are calming and centered,' explains Kathleen Cox, author of The Power of Vastu Living: Welcoming Your Soul into Your Home and Workplace (Fireside, 2002). 'Vastu is an extension of yoga, meditation, ayurveda [Indian medicine], raga [music], and Indian classical dance-which are all about balance and perfect harmony.' Relying on the ancient spiritual idea that all things and beings are interconnected, vastu aligns a dwelling in accordance with the sun's energy, Earth's magnetic fields, and other planets' movements (some of vastu is based onastrology), so that the structure becomes a symbolic microcosm of the universe. 'The objective of vastu,' Cox says, 'is to build man-made creations that mirror the perfection of the universe.'

But such a lofty goal needn't discourage people who are simply seeking an apartment or house that feels more like home. 'Vastu isn't an all-or-nothing or even a one-size-fits-all science,' says Cox, who has studied the ancient vastu shastras-texts and manuals-and apprenticed with an Indian vastu master. 'The only structure that's perfect is a Hindu temple, which is built for the deities according to the principles of vastu. If you achieve more than 50 percent compliance in your home, you'll feel a positive influence in your life.'