reciting mantras

Is merely reciting mantras and reading holy books going to lead us to liberation or is there anything more we need to do?

 It is true that milk contains butter; sesame seeds contain oil; cane yields sugar. But by merely holding milk in the hand, you cannot get butter; filling the lamp with sesame seeds you cannot light the wick, shaking the cane will not result in a shower of sugar. By placing sweets on a plate in front of you and reciting 108 times "sweets, sweets.." can your tongue relish it? Similarly you study many holy books, and chant mantras and hymns. Of course, the time spent in these activities is thereby rendered holy. But, these are not helping you to transform the work you are engaged in into an offering acceptable to God. Are you putting into practice at least one percent of what you read or recite? Mere reading and singing will not free you from the cycle of birth and death. God has to be planted firmly in the mind, the omnipresent God has to be enshrined in the heart; God has to flow with the blood in the veins. God has to be visualised through the inner eye.