| Again, ritualism
has a tendency to make religion mechanical. When the same formulas are repeated every day,
the same verses chanted and the same ceremonies gone through over and over again, they are
apt to lose their power of suggestion and become only tedious. How ritualism makes
religion mechanical may be seen in what is called the Parayana of the Gita or the
Ramayana. There is no doubt that the reading of a
chapter of the Gita every morning with a full understanding of the meaning of what we read
is greatly helpful to religious life. But when it is read in the original by those who do
not know Sanskrit and who think that the uttering of the Sanskrit verses is in itself a
meritorious act and who therefore never connect the teaching of the Gita with their life,
we see within what narrow limits ritualism could confine religion.
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