Shivabalayogi first drew me to him the second night of his first visit to the United States in 1988. I became a regular attending every program I could. It became the custom that after the evening meditation and bhajan programs, Swamiji would sit in the living room of the house where he was staying and answer devotees’ questions Each time I asked Swamiji for his blessings to collect the conversation material in a book, he responded by saying it would be good if I collected devotees’ experiences. Swamiji told me several times that the book should consist of three sections: his biography, darshan conversations, and devotees’ experiences. The first result was "Tapas Shakti" printed in Bangalore and Swamiji presented it to the public on his fifty-seventh birthday, January 24, 1992. After "Tapas Shakti" was published and Swamiji was traveling in the United States, he described it as a spiritual textbook, like the Bible or the ancient Vedas, scriptures that contained the discussions between ancient sages and their devotees. There were times when instead of answering devotees’ questions, he asked them to read the book instead. After Swamiji dropped his physical form on March 28, 1994, I returned to India several times to collect experiences. With the help of D. Jagadish Kumar, we traveled throughout India interviewing over a hundred devotees and the result is "Swamiji’s Treasure". I believe my training and experience as a lawyer help make "Swamiji's Treasure" an accurate and clearly written account of this great God realized Master. -- Tom Palotas