Was talking to Ms.5th Dan the other day while watching the Wesak day parade. Ms.5th Dan told me that Buddhism and other religions are being commercialised. I was kinda surprised, amused (?) to hear such thing from this lady. But come to think about it, I can't agree more. It's not because of the religion itself, but it is related to the behaviour, attitude and acceptance of the society. Ok, so I can simply lepas tangan and say "I didn't do anything", but actually I'm pretty much involved in it by allowing it to happen. The least that I can do is write something about it on my blog (ye ke?). There are some people in the society who want to seek for the solemn truth and thus allow themselves to be fooled by the bidaah or the newly added things to the religion. Why did Ms.5th Dan said it's being commercialised? Imagine this, a regular white candle costs you around RM2 per box, but on Wesak day, you buy it from the temple, one single candle costs your RM20. Oklah, it's for the purpose of charity...but how do you know that it is well spent in the course of charity? I'm not accusing Buddhist of such behaviour, but this come from the mouth of another Buddhist that I know. I'm also not denying that Islam is being commercialised and being exploited in the political arena but it is not fair to accuse that Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism etc. is a commercial religion. They are NOT!! But as I mentioned earlier the commercialisation is done by people who want to gain benefits effortlessly from other people's innocence and trust. Thus, today, we have to deal with the so-called commercialised and exploited religion. And today we have the so-called modern vs. traditional version of a particular religion. What I know is that Islam is a religion based on authentic revelation, and when the prophet Muhammad passed away, that's the end of prophethood and authentic revelation. Other than those revealed in the prophet's time, they are all lies, forgeries and fakes!!But then again, I'm no expert...this is merely an opinion, an outcome of an observation!!