Here we have provided Question Answer of the Sermon at Benares. Question Answer of the Sermon at Benares will help you understand the chapter better and will be helpful in your exam preparation.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 10 The Sermon at Benares
Thinking About The Text (Page 135)
1.) When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans- Kisa Gotami, a woman whose son dies, goes from house to house asking for medicine. She does not get the medicine as his son was already dead and there is no cure for those who are already dead.
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- Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. For the second time, she asks for a handful of mustard-seed from house-to-house while also asking if they have lost a child, husband, parent or a friend as Buddha had asked her to. She did not find any house of the sort because as mentioned there are more dead than alive and death is an inevitable part of life.
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-
On the second time, Kisa Gotami understood that everyone losses someone, she is not the only person suffering from the grief of losing someone close to them and that the dead are gone but the one alive must live on.
Yes, this was what Buddha wanted her to understand and realize that fighting death is not within the bounds of a mortal being, it’s inevitable and everyone faces it.
4.) Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Ans- First time Kisa Gotami was asking for medicine for his son but the second time she was asking for medicine which is not possible to find as ‘the alive are few but the dead are many’. Buddha’s request to provide him with mustard-seeds from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend made her realise that “Death is common to all”, mortals are not capable to determine their own lifetime or when their life will come to an end. One day everyone has to face their end, none is an exception and Buddha also told that grieving, crying and letting it out is the way of obtaining peace of mind.
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- I think the idea of ‘selfishness’ is being a person who thinks only about themselves even if it or their actions lead to someone else’s discomfort.
Yes, I agree that Kisa Gotami was being ‘selfish in her grief’, as she reminded the people of their ‘deepest grief’ while hoping for something impossible to happen, and only for her own goal to be achieved.
Check:- NCERT Solutions For Class 10th English
Thinking About Language
1.) This text is written in an old-fashioned style, for it reports an incident more than two millennia old. Look for the following words and phrases in the text, and try to rephrase them in more current language based on how you understand them.
- give thee medicine for thy child
- Pray to tell me
- Kisa repaired the Buddha
- there was no house but someone had died in it
- kinsmen
- Mark!
Ans:-
- give your medicine to your child
- Please, tell me
- Kisa went to Buddha
- There was no house to be found where someone hadn’t died.
- Relatives
- Note!
2.) Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences?
For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings.
Ans- The rhythm of the sentence using semicolons is better than those of three simple sentences.
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