Do we need a mentor?

In ancient times in traditional India where spiritually studied for thousand of years as a practical science it is always insisted that a if you have a guru then only you can reach to success and on the spiritual path.
Now days many people think and insists, that high level of literacy and with books easily available i the market teachings are accessible to everyone and a mentor is no longer needed. However, true understanding does not come by reading or intellectual reasoning but by intuition.

Mentor is what most surely and directly brings spiritual awakening.In all Indian tradition, initiations into the spirituality by a true mentor is very necessary and is considered more important than the teachings themselves.How can one attune himself with a consciousness of a saint- or ,if one is so fortunate as to found one’s guru,with him/her.