Mulabandha: A Complete Guide to Mastering Your Root Lock

Mula Bandha, also known as Root Lock, is like giving your pelvic muscles a workout! This fundamental yogic practice stimulates and balances the energies of the three lower chakras. It helps direct the flow of energy from the lower abdomen into the Shushumna Nadi or central channel. Applying this lock at the end of an exercise helps seal and crystallize the energy you generated. 

Knot of Brahma:

Yogis believe that practicing Mula Bandha can help release the Knot of Brahma, located at the base of your spine in the First Chakra (Muladhara Chakra). This knot represents our deep-seated ties to the material world and basic survival instincts. It’s a location where many traumas can be stored in the physical body and is connected to our urge to procreate, instinctive behaviors, and tendencies toward passivity and desire. When you manage to untie this knot and the energy flows freely, you start feeling confident and less attached to physical sensations and material things. This breakthrough allows your Kundalini energy to rise beyond the lower chakras, free from the pull of these deep-rooted patterns and attractions.

Benefits of Mula Bandha:

• Blends prana and apana at the Navel Center and creates tapa, which begins to release the Kundalini energy up the central channel. This kicks off the transformation from gross to subtle.
• Physically, it helps tone the uro-genital and excretory muscles, as well as being helpful in psychosomatic and degenerative illnesses. It redirects excess sexual energy into creativity and bodily repair. If there is a lack of sexual vitality, Mula Bandha helps correct it. 
• Psychologically, it can help relieve depression and promote good health.
• Spiritually, it helps to realign the physical, mental, and psychic bodies in preparation for spiritual awakening.

How to Practice Mula Bandha:

In a comfortable seated position:

1. Contract and hold the muscles around the anus. Feel them lift up and inward, as if a string were pulling on the pelvic floor.
2. Contract and hold the muscles around the sex organ. This can feel like a lift and rotation inward of the pubic bone, like trying to stop the flow of urine.
3. Contract the muscles of the lower abdomen and pull the navel in and back towards the spine.
4. These three actions, applied in one smooth, flowing motion compose the Mula Bandha.

Tip: Females lift from the tip of the cervix; males lift from the perineum, just between the scrotum and anus. 

When to Apply Mula Bandha:

Mula Bandha can be applied at the end of each and every exercise. You will find that certain meditations or asanas ask you to continuously or rhythmically apply it. You can apply this lock both on the suspension of the inhale as well as the suspension and retention of the exhale.

Contraindications: 

• Do not practice Root Lock during menstruation.
• Do not practice Mula Bandha after the 120th day of pregnancy, or not at all if the mother has any complications. 

Suggested Practices to Master Mula Bandha:

Practice 1:

• Sit in Easy Pose (Sukhasana) or in a chair with a straight spine. Let the hands and arms relax at the sides.
• Concentrate on the lower pelvis. 
• Inhale and exhale deeply.
• Hold the breath out. Contract the rectum, sex organ, and Navel Point. Hold all three tightly for 5 seconds, applying Mula Bandha.
• Relax the Bandha and inhale gently.
• Repeat the cycle several times, holding for lengths of 5, 10, 15, and 20 seconds.

Practice 2:

• Sit in Easy Pose (Sukhasana) or in a chair with a straight spine. Keep the chest lifted. Make sure to keep the shoulders and face muscles relaxed.
• Inhale and exhale completely. As you suspend the breath out, pump the Navel Point in and out 26 times. Isolate the motion to the lower organs. On each contraction quickly apply Mula Bandha, and in each relaxation of the movement release Mula Bandha. 
• After the 26 pumps, inhale deeply. Exhale and continue.
• Continue to repeat this sequence applying and releasing Mula Bandha for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Relax.