| Thus ritualism has
very important subjective as well as objective functions - social, historical,
symbolical, psychological, aesthetic, moral and mystical-which short-sighted Puritanism
will do well to consider carefully before it launches its attack. Families and
communities, which neglect the forms of institutional religion, are likely to lose their
religious spirit in a generation or two and thus- expose themselves to worldliness and skepticism. A well-established ritualism is like a
fort, which protects a religious community from all disintegrating forces from without.
Even a soulless ritualism goes a great way in warding off the attacks of an aggressive
alien religion. The havoc committed by the enemies of Hinduism in its days of decline in
this country would have been far greater, if its deep-set phalanx of rites and ceremonies,
of temples and priests, of pilgrimages and processions, had not afforded it protection.
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