The following is an extract from Pada Sevanam Dasa's report to Prince Charles.
VEDIC TRADITION describes the vastu purusa mandala as the magical diagram and form that defines the functions, proportions, and shapes of the built form along sacred principles. Vastu means "primary substance" the ultimate particle of the macrocosmic universe and the subtlest particle of the microcosm. Purusa denotes personhood. Thus vastu purusa literally means "Cosmic Man," the personified cosmos. Vastu Purusa himself controls all construction, for he is the proprietor of any vacant land.
As explained in Sri Èsopanisad, all emanations from Lord Krsna are perfect and complete. The Vedas describe even the atom as a complete, whole unit. Modern science confirms the beautiful integral harmonic relationships of energy in the atom through refraction photography of atomic substance.
The basic design of harmonic, symmetrical expression found in the universe or in the atom is known in Sanskrit as a mandala. Mandala means "form" as a reduced image of the universe, or "shape" extended as any centered or bound space, usually drawn as a square. In construction, the mandala precisely describes the building that is to follow. It is the structure's cosmogenesis, figured geometrically.
Thus the vastu purusa mandala is the form or diagram that describes existence. In it one beholds the vastu purusa, contained by its geometric configuration, arrested by the gods in sixty-four subdivisions.
The Mayapur town mandala, a square with a perimeter of 5.2 km, is oriented due north/south and east/west.
The town takes the form of an 8 x 8 mandala comprising 64 padas (sections) of 165 x 165 meters. According to Vedic texts, the grid for a town or village should consist of 64 padas.