Photo taken in 1996 of the bodhi tree (ficus religiosa, known in South India as the ravi tree) where Shivabalayogi was to have sat for his twelve year tapas.  A small shrine set on a short pillar marks the spot.

About two days after being initiated into tapas, Shivabalayogi received divine instructions to move his meditation some 600 feet west under this bodhi tree.  This is where the village street (then only a dirt road) ends at the Godavari River canal.

Devotees set up a wooden platform and a rough shelter made of palm leaves.  This area is also where the villagers came to bathe and wash.  The young yogi was harassed and abused so many times that he felt forced to abandon this location.

Finally he settled in a field a couple of hundred feet west where the villagers used to bury children who died at an early age.  That field is now the Adivarapupeta ashram.