Dining Perfection in the Campus Dining Hall

Organic, GMO-free Vegetarian Meals Cooked Fresh Daily

Are you dissatisfied with your dining experience at the Annapurna Dining Hall? Maybe your favorite dish ran out just as you got to the serving line; or perhaps the serving personnel were curt with you; or maybe you didn't think the vegetables were cooked properly; or the ice cream machine wasn't turned on; or you didn't meet your friends because they went to another part of the building to eat; or the toaster didn't work.

This thing is wrong, and this thing is wrong, and this thing is wrong, always wrong. . . . Maybe there is something inside you that is setting you off, keeping you from enjoying the atmosphere and food at the best restaurant in town. Maybe you are entering the building from the wrong direction!

The direction that we are facing when we cross the threshold and enter a building has everything to do with how circumstances develop in the building, how we organize and make use of the resources available there, whether we are drawn to enjoyment and fulfillment, or whether we are fighting within ourselves, or with those immediately around us. Eastern entrances are most auspicious, according to the ancient Vedic Science of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, which analyzes entrances with great diligence, and Northern entrances are also auspicious, fortune promoting. However Southern entrances are very inauspicious, and Western entrances are almost as bad.

Now is a chance to make an interesting experiment: You be the subject and the experimenter. Chances are, if you are dissatisfied with your dining experience, you have been entering the building from the ramp on the Western side of the building. But the Dining Hall has a glorious Eastern entrance on the ground floor. Yes, you have to climb the indoor stairs, but if you have the agility for that, you may find that the dining experience is much more glorious, more refined, more enjoyable in every way: Just because of entering the building from the East.

Although the ramp circles around the building from the Western side, and actually enters the old Student Union building on the East Side of the upper floor, the geometry of the entrance was radically altered when the kitchen annex was built. Now the ramp functions as part of the building, and you are actually entering the building from the West! For a detailed discussion, and pictures of the building and its annex, view this pdf link.

Maharishi says that not following the rules of architecture can be the cause of quarrels in the family, negativity, problems, sickness, and dissatisfaction in life. (Press Conference, May 28, 2003) Wherever the entrance is in the south or west, Maharishi emphasizes, there will be quarrels, there will be fighting, there will be unrest, and there will be failures. (Press Conference, Sep. 22, 2004) Maharishi explains that when using the western entrance of a building, the mind does not function straightforwardly in the evolutionary direction. It is clear that these features of a building have their influence on every individual that uses the building: They are laws of nature, not dependent on whether a person knows those laws or understands them. Everyone will benefit from following the guidelines of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.

This is a valuable experiment in order to understand the nature of Sthapatya Veda. These are natural laws, not philosophical precepts. It doesn't matter if we think that we are doing it right--we think that we are entering from the East, and getting all the benefits of an Eastern, fortune promoting entrance. But if the entrance is actually Western, then it doesn't matter what we think or say about it. The dissatisfaction, the fighting will still be there inside us, and the grand fulfillment that a building can offer will be diminished. So do the experiment: Try the ground floor Eastern entrance for a few days, and see if things start to go better, and meals become more enjoyable. If you find that the Eastern entrance does give valuable results, tell your friends about this website, so that noone misses out!