He had such power of grasping that he mastered every subject he came across. His writings possessed a clarity, compassion and insightfulness that could compare with the best of Western Thinkers.

Among Western philosophers I place Tolstoy in the highest category, closely followed by Rukin. But in terms of spiritual experience, Srimadji was far ahead of them If one could read his writings, in moments of leisure one would experience a wonderfully wholesome influence His constant contention was that he would not be restricted to my particular cult.

This was because he believed that all sects were limited whereas the world of righteousness was without boundaries It would therefore frustrate every bid to restrict it.

I have seen that whenever he had a spare moments from his profession as a jeweler he would be immersed in a book Had he so wished he could have been a renowned barrister, a great judge or even a viceroy. This is no exaggeration, but the result of the deep impression he left on me and on every individual who met him.

While Srimadji had written the verses with a plan we too had one in designing the book in the way we did. There were several issues we kept in mind. First, we have reproduced the original Gujarati in the Devnagari script to facilitate easy reading by those who are not familiar with the Gujarati script. We have then translated Srimadji's verses into Hindi so that it has a wider audience. Subsequently, we have translated each verse each verse into English keeping in mind the rhyme scheme that Srimadji had observed. We followed this up with a prose explanation, as verse is often too compact and Condensed in meaning to be understood by a vast section of readers.

The interpretation of each verse has been followed by a story, of eclectic origin. The stories have been chosen with several aims. First we wished to stress Srimadji universal relevance. A second purpose was to apply his teachings to everyday living Another was to appeal even to those readers who otherwise may not be spiritually inclined. Besides, we believed that stories are a beautiful way to illustrate the everlasting principles of Atma Siddhi To interpret as enlightened a soul as Srimadji has been challenging given our limitation and inadequacies However, we have persevered to get to the spirit and essence of what Srimadji has said. We seek his grace in our efforts.