The Sermon at Benares Questions and Answers for Class 10 are available here along with some important extra questions. This post is very useful for Class 10 students preparing for exams, as it provides important solutions and practice material to study effectively.
Table of Contents
The Sermon at Benares Questions and Answers
Thinking about the text
Q.1 When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for ? Does she get it? why not?
Ans. When Kisa Gotami’s only son died, she became very sad in her grief. She took her son’s dead body from door to door and asked for medicine to cure her dead child.
She couldn’t get any medicine from anyone because there is no such medicine available which can bring back a dead person to life.
Q.2 Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans. Gautama Buddha asks Kisa Gotami to bring a handful of mustard seed from a house which never ever faced any death in their family. Kisa Gotami goes from house to house but she does not find a single house which is spared by Death. It means that death is common to all living beings.
Q.3 What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand?
Ans. In order to cure her dead child, Kisa Gotami went from house to house to ask for a handful of mustard seeds. But she could find a single house where no one has lost his/her dear one. She became hopeless at last. She understood the fact that Death is common to all living beings. Yes, this was what the Buddha wanted her to understand.
Q.4 Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time ? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?”
Ans. At first, she could see only her own grief. But when she went from door to door a second time, she understood that other people were also suffering the same loss caused by death. Death spared not a single house in the town.
The Buddha helped Gotami to understand all this as he told her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one ever died.
Now She became aware of the fact that Death is common to all.
Q.5. How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish’ in her grief?
Ans. A selfish person is one who only thinks about himself or herself. In this cortext. Kisa Gotami also became selfish in her grief when her only son died. She asked for the medicine which could cure her dead son. She did not want to accept the reality of life.
Finally Buddha helped her to see into the reality of life. All, who are born, must die one day.
The Sermon At Benares Extra Questions And Answers
Additional Questions:-
Q.1 How did Gautama come to be known as the Buddha?
Ans. Siddhartha Gautama wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a Peepal tree till he got enlightenment. After seven days of enlightenment, he renamed the ‘Bodhi Tree’ and came to be known as the Buddha.
Q.2 Why did prince Siddhartha leave the palace and become a beggar ?
Ans. While out hunting, the Prince Siddhartha chanced upon a sick man, an aged man and then a funeral procession. He also saw a monk begging. He realised that the world is full of sorrow so he left the palace in search of enlightenment.
Q.3. What was the basic idea of the Buddha preaching?
Ans. The basic idea of the Buddha’s preaching was that death is the ultimate truth of life. It is that every living being has to die one day. No one can escape from death.
Read Chapter- Ch-7 Madam Rides The Bus