“Today, it is my honour to offer at the feet of Sri Gurudev and Pujya Swamiji, our third picture, of a series of 10 pictures of Gurudev. This picture will be for the year 2019. Each subsequent year will have a different picture released.

“When a devotee posed a question to Gurudev enquiring about why Gurudev takes so many pictures, Gurudev responded as follows: ‘The force behind the system of visual education, which psychologists today acclaim as being infinitely superior to textbooks, will be apparent if you reflect over a very common phenomenon. Leave on your table in the study a few books, a few pictorials and a few photographs. Let your children, your friends come into the study. They pick up the photographs first, and then the pictorials. It is true that your lustre is transferred to the photograph. Therefore, to a devotee, a picture of the Lord and to a disciple, a picture of the Guru is a living presence. It is necessary for meditation.’ ”