Grounding
Obviously yoga is usually practiced barefoot on the floor, but is grounding the energy of our bodies, physically connecting skin to earth, a recommended part of yoga practice?
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What was lost when yogic practices were brought to the west is the cultural context that these practices arose from. This is why I think there is great practical wisdom in bringing back traditional Hindu culture in popular yoga. Most people, and most teachers, simply do not understand what was lost when the meditation practices were disconnected from the traditional life style.
Some modern yoga teachers include many grounding exercises in their practices. Including visualizations like imagining roots growing out of your tailbone, or out of your feet. I'm just not aware of those being in ancient scriptures.
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I have not seen evidence of it also in the books except directly. For instance when Rama the son of Dasharath was banished to the forest. Some of the citizens cried thinking that he would have to walk through the rough terrain and that it would bruise his feet. Krishna and Balarama were barefooted in Vrindavan where they grew up as farm boys (cowherd boys).
Of the four caste the highest is the brahmin caste, which are known for going about barefooted but the status class which from our social view point is the highest caste, the warrior/civil-servant caste, use shoes and that is regarded as a sign of aristocracy. The bias towards barefoot-ness was there in ancient cultures and putting on shoes was seen as a sign of superiority or upper social standing.
From the point of view of geography, it is practical and in fact it is mandatory because of body construction for humans to wear foot covering in the northern hemisphere in the winter season. Even the Eskimos had animal hide coverings when they were discovered by the Europeans. That means that they just cannot go barefooted unless they want to freeze to death. Conversely, the people found living near the equator, the so called equatorial regions were all barefooted when persons like Christopher Columbus and Magellan found them. That I feel was dictated to them by the weather. We experience that as soon as it is a certain temperature, even socks begins to feel uncomfortable and without them one feels undone if one is in freezing weather.
