Pada Bandha by Mark Stephens

With twenty-six bones that form twenty-five joints, twenty muscles, and a variety of tendons and ligaments, the feet are certainly complex. This complexity is related to their role, which is to support the entire body with a dynamic foundation that allows us to stand, walk, run, and have stability and mobility in life. In yoga

they are the principal foundation for all the standing poses and active in all inversions and arm balances, most back-bends and forward bends, and many twists and hip openers. Meanwhile they are also subjected to almost constant stress, ironically one of the greatest stresses today coming from a simple tool originally designed to protect them: shoes. Giving close attention to our feet—getting them strong, flexible, balanced, aligned, rooted, and resilient—is a basic starting point for building or guiding practically any yoga practice, including seated meditation.

In order to support the weight of the body, the tarsal and metatarsal bones are constructed into a series of arches. The familiar medial arch is one of two longitudinal arches (the other is called the lateral arch). Due to its height and the large number of small joints between its component parts, the medial arch is relatively more elastic than the other arches, gaining additional support from the tibialis posterior and peroneus longus muscles from above. The lateral arch possesses a special locking mechanism, allowing much more limited movement. In addition to the longitudinal arches, there are a series of transverse arches. At the posterior part of the metatarsals and the anterior part of the tarsus these arches are complete, but in the middle of the tarsus they present more the characters of half-domes, the concavities of which are directed inferiorly and medially, so that when the inner edges of the feet are placed together and the feet firmly rooted down, a complete tarsal dome is formed. When this action is combined with the awakening of the longitudinal arches, we create pada bandha, which is a key to stability in all standing poses (and a key source of mula bandha).

However, the feet do not stand alone, even in Tadasana, nor do they independently support movement. Activation of the feet begins in the legs as we run lines of energy from the top of our femur bones down through our feet. This creates a “rebounding effect.” Imagine the feeling of being heavier when riding up in an elevator, or lighter when riding down. The pressure of the elevator floor up against your feet not only makes you feel heavier, it has the effect of causing the muscles in your legs to engage more strongly. Similarly, when you intentionally root down from the tops of your thighbones down into your feet, the muscles in your calves and thighs engage. This not only creates the upward pull on the arches of pada bandha (primarily from the stirrup-like effect of activating the tibialis posterior and peroneus longusmuscles) but creates expansion through the joints and a sense of being more firmly grounded yet resilient in your feet while longer and lighter up through your body.

Varaha Upanishad quotes

A wise man who has understood the course of nadis and vayus

should, after keeping his neck and body erect with his mouth

closed, contemplate immovably upon Turyaka (Atma) at the

tip of his nose, in the centre of his heart and in the middle of

bindu,

and should see, with a tranquil mind through the

(mental) eyes, the nectar flowing from there. Having closed

the anus and drawn up the vayu and caused it to rise through

(the repetition of) pranava (Om).

He should try to go up by the union of Prana and Apana.

This most important yoga brightens up in the body the path of

siddhis. As a dam across the water serves as an obstacle to the

floods, so it should ever be known by the yogins that the chhaya

of the body is (to jiva). This bandha is said of all nadis.

Through the grace of this bandha, the Devata (goddess) becomes

visible. This bandha of four feet serves as a check to the three

paths. This brightens up the path through which the siddhas

obtained (their siddhis). If with Prana is made to rise up soon

Udana, this bandha checking all nadis goes up. This is called

Samputayoga or Mulabandha. Through the practising of this

yoga, the three bandhas are mastered. By practising day and

night intermittingly or at any convenient time, the vayu will

come under his control. With the control of vayu, agni (the

gastric fire) in the body will increase daily. With the increase

of agni, food, etc., will be easily digested. Should food be

properly digested, there is increase of rasa (essence of food).

With the daily increase of rasa, there is the increase of dhatus

(spiritual substances). With the increase of dhatus, there is the

increase of wisdom in the body. Thus all the sins collected

together during many crores of births are burnt up.

Quotes from the Dyhanabindu upanishad

Muladhara is the first chakra. Svadhishthana is the second.

Between these two is said to be the seat of yoni (perineum),

having the form of Kama (God of love). In the Adhara of the

anus, there is the lotus of four petals. In its midst is said

to be the yoni called Kama and worshipped by the siddhas. In

the midst of the yoni is the Linga facing the west and split at

its head like the gem. He who knows this, is a knower of

the Vedas.

He is knower of yoga who knows that prana always

draws itself from apana and apana draws itself from prana

Paramesvari (viz., kundalini sakti) sleeps shutting with her mouth

that door which leads to the decayless Brahma-hole. Being aroused by the contact of agni with manas and prana, she takes

the form of a needle and pierces up through Sushumna. The

yogin should open with great effort this door which is shut.

Then he will pierce the door to salvation by means of kundalini.

Folding firmly the fingers of the hands, assuming firmly the

Padma posture, placing the chin firmly on the breast and fixing

the mind in dhyana, one should frequently raise up the apana.

When this Jalandhara bandha which is

destroyer of the pains of the throat is performed, then nectar

does not fall on agni nor does the vayu move.

This bindu is twofold, white and red. The white one is called

sukla and the red one is said to contain much rajas. The

rajas which stays in yoni is like the colour of a coral. The bindu

stays in the seat of the genital organs. The union of these two

is very rare. Bindu is siva and rajas is sakti. Bindu is the

moon and rajas is the sun. Through the union of these two is

attained the highest body ; when rajas is roused up by agitating

the s akti through vayu which unites with the sun, thence is

produced the divine form. Sukla being united with the moon

and rajas with the sun, he is a knower of yoga who knows the

proper mixture of these two.

Yoga Taravali&Yoga Sutras sanskrit audio

Yoga Taravali (full text) by Sri Shankaracharya