Class 10 Important questions THE SERMON AT BENARES
Short Answer type questions
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 son dies, she goes from house to house, asking if she could
get some medicine that would cure her child. No, she does not get it because her child
is dead and no medicine could bring him back to life.
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: When she met the Buddha, he asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a
house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend. She went from house to house, but could get the mustard seeds because there was not a single house where no one had died in the family.
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: Kisa Gotami understood the second time that death is common to all and that she was being selfish in her grief. There was no house where some beloved had not died.
Yes, this was what Buddha wanted her to understand.
4. What did Kisa Gotami learn in the end?
Ans: Kisa Gotami wandered from house to house to get a handful of mustard seeds but
could not find it. She realised that death is common to all. All living beings have to die.
She had been selfish in her grief.
5. What does Buddha say about the world?
Ans: Buddha says that the world is a valley of death. There is a path that leads man to
immortality, the reality that has been cleansed of all selfishness. Death is common to all. One who is born will die as well. Death is imminent. The life of mortals in this world is
troubled and brief and combined with pain.
6. Who was Gautama Buddha? When and where was he born?
Ans: Gautama Buddha was the earlier prince, Siddhartha who got enlightenment under
a peepal tree and was then named as Gautama Buddha. He was born as a prince in North India.
7. What did Buddha ask the lady to do?
Ans: Buddha asked the lady to bring a handful of mustard-seeds. But these must be taken from a house where no one had ever lost a child, husband or a friend. Only then
he would be able to help her.
8. Where did Buddha preach his first sermon?
Ans: After the attainment of enlightenment, Buddha preached his first sermon at the
holy city of Benaras which is situated on the sacred river Ganges.
Long Answer Questions
1. How did Buddha make Kisa Gotami realise about the reality of death?
Ans: Kisa Gotami had only one son and he had died. In her great grief, she does not
know how to revive her son. She goes to all her neighbours asking them for medicine. A
man suggested to her to go to Buddha. Kisa Gotami went to Buddha and prayed to him
to revive her son. The Buddha told her to procure a handful of mustard seeds from a
house where nobody had ever died. Kisa Gotami went from door-to-door to get the
mustard seeds. But when she asked them if anyone had died in the family they could
only answer that they had lost many. Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless, and
realised that death is common to all.
2. How did Buddha seek and achieve enlightenment?
Ans: Once Gautama went for hunting. On the way, he saw a sick man, an old man, a
funeral procession and a begging monk. He was filled with sorrow. He renounced
everything and went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed after having wandered for seven years. Buddha sat under a peepal tree
till he was enlightened. After being enlightened, that took a week’s time, he renamed the tree as Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to preach.