Do not have disgust towards the sadhu, thinking: “O, he’s just a man. Why should we do service to him, why should we do vaisnava-seva? Why is it recommended so much in different places, in different scriptures? It is always said, ‘You are to be dependent on sadhu’; but I want God, Himself! Why will he come between me and God?” Do not think like that. Rather, you can understand the importance of the sadhu by the example of the telescope: in a telescope, there are so many lenses coming between myself and the object of my search, but they help my vision. The guru-parampara, the disciplic succession, is working in this way, like a ‘telescopic system’.
His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev Goswami