We honor the line of transmission. The guru-śiṣya parampara is very important because all knowledge comes through the lineage.
Transmission lineage gives us blessings, transmission lineage gives us the secrets of dharma, transmission lineage will always support you with spiritual blessings, strength and wisdom. It is very important to honor the transmission lineage, to respect it, to call upon it in your practice, to rely on it, to praise and glorify it, to make offerings to it, to perform seva. All this is called the principle of śaraṇam - refuge. So apart from faith - śraddhā it is very important to connect with the transmission lineage through your spiritual teacher.
Someone may think - what will it do for me, it's invisible, how do I recognize it, what's the benefit of it, how do I interact with it? This interaction doesn't come immediately; it comes as you deepen your connection with the guru and with the teachings. The lineage of refuge begins to reveal itself to you as a stream of revelation, a stream of blessings, so I recommend that all my disciples have an altar with a picture of the parampara tree.
When we learn to visualize the tree of refuge our connection with the lineage deepens. When we study the sacred texts of the tradition, our connection to the lineage deepens; when we travel to pilgrimage sites we see ashrams and maha-samadhi sites, living disciples from other countries and other teachers in our tradition we get the blessings from our lineage.
The connection with the tree of refuge through your guru must be so strong and deep that you must be constantly in meditation on the tree of refuge.
The saints of the transmission lineage know about us. Moreover, they knew about us even before we entered the lineage, because our spiritual path has already been blessed on a subtle level and laid out by Śiva himself.
Śiva, through the transmission lineage, leads the souls of the disciples, pulling them up and motivating them to join the path of teaching because those souls have already had a connection. The guru has an obligation to the lineage to help his disciples activate and awaken that spiritual connection.
Source: Satsang by Visnudevananda Giri.
