Newspaper Article
Shiva Bala Yogi
The Yogi's Yoga
Sri Sri Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj sits cross-legged and serene, comfortable with the confines of the secluded home of his host 
.
His peace, exhibited through speech and smile, seems at odds with the distance he has traveled. Yet for Shivabalayogi, a yogi renowned at home in India and abroad, the state is unshakable. He has come too far, eclipsed too many mental and physical barriers, to be affected by anything as inconsequential as miles or foreign cultures.
If anything, Shivabalayogi, is enriched by his surroundings. Helping others in this area obtain their own transformation through a unique mode of meditation is the reason for his three-day visit to 
home. As with two previous visits in 1989 and 1990, Shivabalayogi’s sessions are free and open to anyone.
His presence her can be traced to 
, an independent Architectural Designer who learned about the yogi while cultivating an interest in India’s ancient traditions and architecture. In 1989, finally met Shivabalayogi in New York and invited him to visit Columbus.
“I invited him to help him share his experience,” said. “I’m inspired by people who try and help other people. “
He estimated 150 to 200 people participated in the program in 1989 and as many as 120 last year. This year’s program will begin 6:30 tonight and Sunday at home.
Shivabalayogi, speaking through his interpreter, Jagadish Kumar, said his meditation lasts about an hour, a primary focus being to reduce participants’ tension while heightening their capacity for harmonious relationships with others.
Sessions end with songs repeating God’s name, he said.
“Whatever I have learned from God is exactly what I teach to the people,” Shivabalayogi said. “Afterward, they can do their daily work better that they have been and it brings them closer to God.”
Shivabalayogi did Tapas or “Religious Austerity” , through 12 years of meditation in almost total isolation. He endured a host of natural threats, including multiple cobra bites and scarring insect and rodent attacks on his clasped hands at various times during the period. But he never abandoned his path, and now says he enjoys meditation more than anything else in life.
He stressed the tendency of his meditation to help others understand one another, thus improving interpersonal relationships in and outside the home. He added, with a characteristic hint of humor, “the power of meditation is more powerful that the atom bombs.” Like the body needs food, so does the spirit need meditation to stay healthy Shivabalayogi said.
