Sermon at Benares Class 10 Extra Questions & Answers are available here. Class 10 English Sermon at Benares extra questions and answers are prepared by our expert teachers. All these questions are divided into two or three sections. They are short type questions answers, long type question answers and extract based questions. Learning these questions will help you to score excellent marks in the board exams.

Sermon at Benares Extra Questions and Answers

Very Short Answer Questions

1. When was Siddhartha Gautama born?
Answer: Siddhartha Gautama was born in 563 B.C.

2. At what age was Siddhartha married?
Answer: He was married at the age of sixteen years.

3. What did Gautama chance to see one day?
Answer: One day he chanced to see a sick man, an old man, a dead man’s funeral procession and a monk.

4. At what age did Gautama leave home for enlightenment?
Answer: He left home at the age of twenty-five for enlightenment.

5. How long did Gautama wander in search of wisdom?
Answer: He wandered for seven years in search of wisdom.

6. After how many days of meditation did he get enlightenment?
Answer: He got enlightenment after the meditation of seven days.

7. What is the meaning of Buddha?
Answer: The meaning of Buddha is the Awakened or Enlightened.

8. Where did the Buddha give his first sermon?
Answer: Buddha gave his lint sermon at Benares.

9. What did Buddha ask Kisa Gotami to bring?
Answer: Buddha asked Gotami to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had died.

10. What did Kisa Gotami realise in the end?
Answer: In the end, she realised that death is inevitable.

Short Answer Type Questions

1. Kisa compared human life to an inanimate object. What is it and why does she do so?

Answer: Kisa compared human life with the lights of the city which flicker up and extinguished again and the darkness of the night spreads everywhere. Similarly, the human takes birth, flickers up and then extinguished the life of the remains. She compared so because the darkness of sadness spreads in use she was in great grief of the death of his

2. Where and when did Siddhartha became the Buddha?

Answer: At the age of 25, Siddhartha confronted a sick man then an age sight moved funeral procession and finally a monk. Palace and wandered for seven years to shed seedling team the tree The Bodenheim Tree’ until enlightenment came. He renames Finally so much that he even allied heat swath teen admiral

3. Which people are referred to as “wise” by the Buddha in his sermons?

Answer: Buddha preached in his sermons that everything that is born will come to its end. Death is inevitable: both young and adult or fools and wise are subject to death. But the people who do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world are called wise people. Wise people neither weep nor grieve.

4. Why was Kisa Gotamis ad?

Answer: Kisa Gotami’s only son had died. She was grief-stricken. Carrying the dead son, she went to all her neighbours to get some medicine that would cure her son. A man sent her to the Buddha who asked her to procure a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had died, but she couldn’t find such a house and was thus sad.

5. Why was Gautama known as the Buddha?

Answer: Gautama sat under a pipal tree until he attained enlightenment. After seven days he got enlightenment and began to teach and share his new understandings. So he came to be known as the Buddha (the Awakened or the Enlightened).

6. How did the Buddha teach Kisa Gotami the truth of life?

Answer: Buddha changed Kisa’s thinking with the help of a simple act—asking her to procure a handful of mustard seeds from a house where none had died. She could not understand it. But, gradually she understood that death is inevitable.

7. Describe the life of Gautama Buddha before enlightenment.

Answer: Buddha was earlier a prince and lived in luxury. When he encountered suffering and grief, it made him sad and sorrowful. He renounced everything and went in search of riddance from suffering. He wandered for seven years. Then, one day, he sat under a fig tree and vowed not to leave until he was enlightened.

8. To seek peace one has to draw out the arrow of lamentation. State two values projected through the statement.

Answer: No lamenting can bring someone’s dear and near ones back to life. Neither can they stop one’s death. Lamenting tells upon one’s health. He becomes sick and pale. He loses appetite and interest in life. One has to learn that death is inevitable.

9. What sights moved Siddhartha Gautama to seek the path of enlightenment?

Answer: While going for hunting Gautam saw a sick man, an old man, a funeral procession and a monk begging. This encounter with the sufferings and grief moved him and he left to seek the path of enlightenment.

10. What did the Buddha preach to the people?

Answer: Buddha said that death is common to all mortals. You cannot avoid it. No amount of Weeping and lamenting can bring back the dead. So wise men don’t grieve. Weeping and Lamenting rather spoil one’s health. To overcome sorrow, become free of sorrow.

11. What happened to Kisa Gotami’s son? What did she ask her neighbours to give her?
Or
When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?

Answer: When her son died, Kisa Gautama went from house to house in order to ask for as everyone said that she was out of her senses to invite for her son. But she didn’t get any it2nat her son was dead.

12. How do weeping and grieving affect us? (The Sermon at Benares)

Answer: Weeping and grieving bring no gains. It rather spoils one’s health and gives truer ‘, I Only you take out the arrow of lamentation and get composed you will get peace of overcome sorrow, become free of sorrow. I again go from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha.

13. Mention the incidents which prompted Prince Siddhartha to become a beggar.

Answer: Siddhartha while going for hunting saw a sick man, an old man, a funeral procession and a monk begging. This was his first encounter with suffering and grief. It made him sad and he immediately renounced everything.

14. What did Kisa Gotami learn in the end?

Answer: Kisa Gotami wandered from house to house to get a handful of mustard seeds but could not find it. She realized that death is common to all. All living beings have to die. She had been selfish in her grief.

15. What does the Buddha say about the world?
Or
What is Gautam Buddha’s opinion about death?

Answer: Buddha says that the world is a valley of death. There is a path that leads man to immortality 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.

16. Who was Gautam Buddha? When and where was he born?

Answer: Gautam Buddha was the earlier prince, Siddhartha who got enlightenment under a fig tree and was then named as Gautam Buddha. He was born as a prince in North India.

17. Kisa Gotami was selfish and grief-stricken. Justify.

Answer: Kisa Gotami lost her only son. In her grief, she carried her dead child everywhere and asked people to cure him. As instructed by Buddha she went door to door to get a handful of mustard seeds with condition that there should not be any loss of a child. Husband, parent or friend. In her grief, she forgot that everyone had to suffer such type of loss in his or her family Death is common to all. But in her grief, she became selfish and tried to fulfil the condition that was impossible.

18. What does she ask for the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?

Answer: Buddha asked her to procure a handful of mustard seeds but he put a condition that it should be procured from a house where no death had ever taken place. She went from house to house but could not find such a residence.

19. Who was Gautama Buddha?

Answer: Gautama Buddha was a prince in northern India. His full name was Siddhartha Gautama and he was sent away for schooling at the age of twelve. He married Yashodhara when he returned after four years.

20. How did Siddhartha Gautama get the name of Buddha?

Answer: Siddhartha Gautama sat under a big peepal tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came. He was enlightened after seven days. He began to teach and share his new understandings. Then he came to be known as Buddha.

21. What did Buddha ask the lady to do?

Answer: 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, a husband or a friend. Then he would be able to help her.

22. What does Gautama Buddha say about the life and death of human beings?

Answer: Gautama Buddha says that the life of human beings in this world is troubled, brief and combined with pain. It is because there is not any means by which those that have been born can avoid dying.

23. Can an aggrieved person get peace of mind by weeping or grieving?

Answer: No, nobody can get peace of mind by weeping or grieving. Rather, his pain will be greater and his body will suffer by doing so. He will make himself sick and pale.

24. Where did Buddha preached his first sermon?

Answer: After attainment of enlightenment, Buddha preached his first sermon at the holy city of Banaras which is situated on the sacred river Ganges.

25. With what does Buddha compare the death and decay of human beings?

Answer: Gautama Buddha says that just as ripe fruit are liable to fall, so mortals when horn arc always in danger of death. An earthen vessel made by the potter end in being broken, the life of all mortals will ultimately meet death.

26. Describe the early life of Gautama Buddha.

Answer: Gautama Buddha began life as a prince. He was named Siddhartha Gautama. He was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures at twelve. When he returned home, he was married to a princess. He lived in royal luxury, shielded from the sufferings up to the age of twenty-five.

27. What were the sights that moved and shocked Gautama?

Answer: Prince Gautama had been deliberately shielded from all the sufferings of the world. One day he chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man and then a funeral procession. Finally, he saw a monk begging for alms. These sights moved him. He went out into the world to seek the solution of all these sufferings. He wanted to seek enlightenment.

28. What did Kisa Gotami do when her only son died? What did her neighbours think about her?

Answer: Kisa Gautami’s only son had died. She was overwhelmed with grief She carried the dead child to all her neighbours. She asked them for the medicine to cure her son. The neighbours thought she had lost her senses. A dead child could never be cured.

29. How did Kisa Gotami go to the Buddha? What did Buddha ask Gotami to do?

Answer: A man advised Kisa Gotami to go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha. He was the physician who could cure her dead son. She went to the Buddha. He asked Kisa Gotami to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a house. The house must be such where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend.

30. Did Kisa Gotami get a handful of mustard seeds as directed by the Buddha?

Answer: Poor Kisa Gotami went from house to house. The people pitied her and were ready to give a handful of mustard seeds to her. But, she couldn’t find a house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend.

31. Why did Kisa Gotami say, ‘How selfish am I in my grief!’ What did she realise about the fate of mankind?

Answer: Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless. At last, the darkness of the night reigned everywhere. She realised that she had been very selfish in her grief Death spares none. One who is born is destined to die sooner or later. No grieving or lamenting would bring a dead man to life.

32. What did Buddha say about the mortals of the world?

Answer: The Buddha said to Kisa Gotami that the life of mortals is troubled and brief in this world. Those who have been born can avoid dying. As ripe fruits are in danger of falling, so mortals are always in danger of death. All earthen vessels end in being broken.

33. Can grieving and lamentation avoid death and decay in this world? What did the Buddha say in this regard?

Answer: This world is afflicted with death and decay. Therefore, the wise don’t grieve. No one will ever get peace of mind by weeping or grieving. Weeping or grieving only makes a person sick and pale. Only the person who has overcome all sorrow will be free from sorrow. He will then be blessed.

34. What did the Buddha want Kisa Gotami to understand?

Answer: The Buddha wanted Kisa Gotami to understand that all men and women are mortals. And all mortals are destined to die. No lamentation and grieving can bring a dead person back to life. Therefore, she should stop lamenting and grieving the death of her son. Overcoming the sorrows makes a person free from sorrows.

35. What did Kisa Gotami realise at last?

Answer: In the end, Kisa Gotami was free from all illusions. She realised the universal truth that all mortals are destined to die sooner or later. Death spares none. Her lamentation and grieving can’t bring her dead son alive. There was no family in which no son, daughter or parent had not ever died.

36. Describe the main message that the lesson ‘The sermon at Benares’ gives to the readers.

Answer: The Buddha wants us to understand that this world is full of sufferings, death and decay. Death spares none. Death is the ultimate truth of life. Everything that is born today will die sooner or later. No lamentation or grieving will bring the dead to life again.

37. How did Siddhartha Gautama get enlightenment? Why did he name the fig tree as the Bodhi tree?

Answer: Gautama wanted a final solution for the sufferings and pains that afflicted the people of the world. He wandered for seven years for seeking enlightenment. Finally, he sat down under a fig tree. He vowed to stay there until enlightenment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the fig tree. It was named as the Bodhi Tree or Tree of Wisdom. He gave his first sermon at the city of Benares on the River Ganges.

Long Answer Type Questions

1.” The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. With this statement of the Buddha find out the moral value that Kisa Gotami learnt after the house and was unable to get wanted the mustard seeds. table: grief death of her child.

Answer: Kisa Gotami lost her only son. In her neighbours, asking them to provide medicine for her son. A man suggested her to Buddha. Buddha asked her to bring a handful of mustard seeds but she should get it the house where no one had lost any near and dear one. But she could not get any such Of Kisa Gotami went from door to door requesting mustard seeds. People pitied her Do is troubled.

Only then Buddha made her understand that the life of mortals in this world and grief and combined with pain. Now Kisa understood the reality too realized the fate of men that their lives flick e reality of death. Her underskirts that death is common to all of us. Now she l’ up and extinguish again.

2. “The world is afflicted with death eaters and d the Buddha. Expand this thought revising Kisa Gotami’s experience when she a5,” Buddha for a solution.

Answer: When Kisa Gotami went to the Buddha for the medicine to revive her a Buddha told her to procure a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one and gave her the seeds. She then asked them if anyone in the family had died, and they answered that many were dead in the house and it aggrieved them to remember those dead people. She became weary and hopeless after going to several houses and getting the same response.

As she sat wearily she saw the city lights go out, and darkness reigned everywhere. She finally grasped the Buddha’s underlying meaning. She returned to the Buddha and narrated her experience. Thereafter the Buddha sermonized her that the life of mortals in this world is troubled and painful; that the world is afflicted with death and decay, and so there is no point in grieving over something which is inescapable.

3. Why did Kisa Gotami understand the message given by the Buddha only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?

Answer: Kisa Gotami had lost her only son and in grief, she carried her dead son to all her neighbours to get him cured and restored back to life. Finally, she went to the Buddha asking him for the medicine to cure her boy. The Buddha felt that she needed to be enlightened about the truth of life — that death and sorrow are inescapable. He could see that grief had blinded her, and it would be difficult for her to accept the truth.

So the Buddha told her to procure mustard seeds from a house where none had died. Kisa Gotami went from door to door. Then she realized that there was no house where no one had died and that death is common to all. She came back to the Buddha where He sermonized her that life in this world is troubled and filled with sorrows. He gave her examples of ripe fruits and earthen vessels whose ‘lives’ are short. This way he made her realize that death is unavoidable and none —even the near and dear ones — can save anyone from death.

4. The Buddha said, “The world is affected by death and decay, therefore the wise men do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world.” Do you think the statement is appropriate even for today’s life? Write your views in the context of the above statement.

Answer: The above-said statement holds true concerning today’s life as well. Buddha said that death is common to all mortals. Those who are born must die one day. Death is certain, can’t be avoided. As ripe fruits fall off the trees, so is the life of mortals. Life of a man is like an earthen pot that breaks and meets its end. No amount of weeping and lamenting can bring the dead back to life. So, wise men don’t grieve. They understand that it is the law of the world. Weeping and lamenting produce no gains. It rather spoils one’s health and gives more pain.

If only you take out the arrow of lamentation and get composed, you will get peace of mind. To overcome sorrow, become free of sorrow. But in today’s world, man has forgotten this. He makes all kinds of efforts to provide himself with the comforts and earns money by all means whether wrong or right. He forgets that one day he has to die and everything will be left here only.

5. How did Buddha make Kisa Gotami realize about the reality of death?
Or
How did Gautama Buddha teach Gotami that life is full of pains and sorrows and death comes to all?
Or
Why does Kisa feel disappointed after going from door to door?

Answer: Kisa Gotami had only one son and he had died. In her greet fobs he occults reroof ended riser senses. all her neighbours asking them for medicine. She has thought the man suggested her to go to the Buddha. Kisa Gotami went to the Buddha and prayed 0hhaM on how to revive her son. The Buddha told her to procure a handful of mustard seeds from us. Here no one had olestra child, husband, parent or friend. Kisa Gotami went from door pitied her and offered her the seeds. But when she asked them if anyone had died in the family they could only answer that they had lost many and they did not want to that death of their deepest grief. Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless and realized oath is common to all.

6. How did Buddha seek and achieve enlightenment?

Answer: 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 fig t from there till he was enlightened. After being enlightened that took a week’s time, he renamed the tree as Buddha Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to preach.

7. Through the story of Kisa Gotami, what did the Buddha try to preach to the common man?

Answer: Buddha said that death is common to all mortals. Those who are born must die one day. You cannot avoid it. Death is certain. He taught this, through the story of Kisa Gotami, Kisa was a common woman whose son had died. She could not believe it and carried her son to neighbours requesting them to give her medicine to cure him. People thought that she was not in her senses. She approached Buddha. He asked her to procure a handful of mustard seeds but he put a condition that they should be procured from a house where no death has ever taken place. Kisa could not find such a house. She, sad and depressed, sat on the sideways and watched city lights that flickered and extinguished. It made her realize that human lives flicker and extinguish as well and that death is an unavoidable phenomenon. She thought herself to be selfish for thinking only about her grief.

8. What did Buddha say about death and suffering? Explain by giving examples from the text.
Or
“‘lb seek peace one should draw out the arrow of lamentation.” What do you infer from the Buddha’s statement?

Answer: Buddha said that death is common to all mortals. Those who are born must die one day. You cannot avoid it. Death is certain. As ripe fruits fall off the trees and meet an end so do the lives of the mortals. Life of a man is like an earthen pot that breaks and meets its end. No amount of weeping and lamenting can bring the dead back to life. So, wise men don’t grieve. They understand that it is the law of nature. Also, weeping and lamenting bring no gains. It rather spoils one’s health and gives more pain. If only you take out the arrow of lamentation and get composed you will get peace of mind. lb overcome sorrow, become free of sorrow.

9. What impression do you form of Lord Buddha after reading the lesson, “The Ser at Benares”?

Answer: Buddha was born in North India as a prince named Siddhartha. Once he went out hunting. On the way, he saw a sick man, an old man, funeral procession and a bear monk. He was overcome with grief. He renounced all pleasures and luxuries offered royalty and went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he witnessed. After attaining enlightenment, he gave his first sermon at Benares. It reflects wisdom on ‘suffering’. He said the life of man is short, full of troubles and pain. Man is ripe fruit, the fruit falls and the man dies. Lag at ace of mind, one must overcome so death and pain and draw out the arrow of lamentation. Buddha was a wise man to make people understand the difficult concept of suffering and death.

10. Who was Gautama Buddha? What made him renounce his royal life and become a monk?

Answer: Gautama Buddha was born in 563 B.C. He was born in a royal family. His name was Siddhartha Gautama. At the age of twelve, he was sent away for schooling. He studied all the sacred Hindu scriptures. At the age of sixteen, he married a princess. They had a son. For ten years the couple passed a happy life. Siddhartha had been shielded from the sufferings of the world.

However, when he was twenty-five, Siddhartha saw a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession. Finally, he came across a monk begging for alms. This was his first encounter with the harsh realities of life. These sights made him so sad that he decided to renounce the worldly pleasures. He left his family and became a monk. He went out into the world to seek spiritual knowledge.

11. Why did Siddhartha conic to be called the Buddha? Where did he give his first sermon? 

Answer: Siddhartha Gautama wandered for seven years in search of wisdom and truth. Finally, he sat down under a big people tree to meditate. He vowed to stay there until he got enlightenment. After seven days, Gautama got enlightenment. He named the tree as the ‘Bodhi Tree’. , that is ‘The tree of wisdom.’ He became known as ‘the Buddha’ which means ‘enlightened’ or ‘the awakened’. He began to teach and to spread his message of wisdom and truth. The Buddha gave his first sermon at Benares. It is the holiest of places on the hank of the Ganges. His first sermon reflects his wisdom about one kind of suffering i.e. death. Here the Buddha tells about the universality of death which is inevitable and can’t be escaped.

12. How did the Buddha made Kisa Gotami realize that death is inevitable?
or
Why did Kisa Gotami go from house to house? In what way did the Buddha change her under. standing?

Answer: A lady named Kisa Gotami had only one son. One day, her son died. She wanted her child should become alive again. She wanted some medicine to bring her son to life. People called her mad. At last, she came across a man. He advised her to meet the Buddha. She approached the Buddha with a request to give her medicine so that her only son could be live again.

After deep thought, the Buddha asked her to bring a handful of mustard-seed. But there was a condition. She must bring it from a house where no one had died Kisa Gotami went from door to door to get the mustard-seed. She found mustard-seed in every home but she could not find a house where nobody had ever died. By evening, she was sad and tired. She saw the lights of the city. They were trimming. Soon there was the darkness of the night. Now she considered the fate of man. Now she realised that death is inevitable. No one can escape it.

13. Describe the journey of Siddhartha Gautama become the Buddha.

Answer: Gautama Buddha began his life as a royal prince. He was named Siddhartha Gautama. At twelve, Gautama was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures. At the age of sixteen, he returned home to marry a princess. The prince was deliberately shielded from all sufferings of the world. But this attempt failed when the prince while out hunting chanced upon a sick man. Then, he saw an aged man. He also chanced to see a funeral procession.

Finally, he saw a monk, begging for alms. These sights of suffering, sickness and decay shocked and moved the prince. He wanted to seek the final solution of all these sorrows and sufferings. He wandered for seven Years in search of enlightenment. Finally, he sat down under a fig tree. He meditated there until he was enlightened after seven days. He renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree or the Tree of Wisdom. He became known as the Buddha or the Awakened or the Enlightened one. The Buddha gave his first sermon at Benares on the River Ganges.

14. Why did Kisa Gotami go to every neighbour? Why did she say, ‘How selfish I am in my grief?’

Answer: Kisa Gotami’s only son had died. Naturally, she was filled with grief. She carried the dead child to all her neighbours. She asked them for medicine. The people thought that she had lost her senses in grief. She was demanding medicine for her dead son.

Only after meeting the Buddha, she followed his instructions. She couldn’t get a handful of mustard seeds not even from one family. There was no family where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend. Only then she realised what the Buddha wanted her to understand. She realised that she was very selfish in her grief. She was grieving for her dead child. She forgot that death spares none. She realised that no lamentation or grieving can bring a dead person back to life again.

15. What did the Buddha ask Kisa Gotami to do? Why couldn’t Kisa Gotami succeed in getting a handful of mustard seeds from any family?

Answer: Kisa Gotami couldn’t get any consolation and cure from her neighbours. They realised that grief had made her almost mad. One of them directed her to the Buddha. He thought only the Sakyamum, the Buddha was the most appropriate physician to cure her son. The Buddha wanted the grieving woman to learn a lesson.

So, he asked her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a family. The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one had lost a child, a husband or a friend. Poor Gotami went from house to house begging for a handful of mustard seeds. The people pitied her. They were ready to give a handful of mustard seeds to her. In short, there was no house where some beloved one had not died in it. So, Kisa Gotami didn’t succeed in her mission. She only realised that she had been selfish in grief.

16. Describe the main teachings of the Buddha as highlighted in The Sermon at Benares.’

Answer: Before the age of twenty-five, Siddhartha Gautam was carefully shielded from the sufferings of the world. When he saw a sick man, an aged man and a funeral procession for the first time, he was moved and shocked at the sights. He gave up his royal luxuries and went out in search of the permanent solution of all those sufferings and sorrows. After a long meditation, he got the enlightenment. At that time, he became known as the Buddha or the Awakened one. He gave his first sermon at Benares.

Through Kisa Gotami, the Buddha wanted to tell the world that death is the ultimate truth. All mortals are destined to die sooner or later. There is no family in a world where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend. Lamenting for a son or a parent is like showing selfishness in grief. No lamentation or grieving can bring a dead man back to life. This world is afflicted with death and decay. He who has overcome all sorrow will become free from sorrow. He will be the blessed one.

17. What does the Buddha say about the life of mortals in this world? How can one obtain the peace of mind?

Answer: The Buddha preached his first sermon at Benares. He preached that all men, women and children are mortals. And, all mortals are destined to die. Actually, death and decay is the fate of all mortals in this world. Death spares none. The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief. It is combined with pain. Those who have been born, can’t avoid dying.

Actually, there is no means of avoiding death and decay. The ripe fruits fall, so do the aged people of the world. One by one the mortals is carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter. Therefore, the wise do not grieve. No amount of lamenting or grieving can bring a dead man back to life. Weeping and grieving will never give anyone the peace of mind. On the other hand, they only compound miseries. He who has overcome all sorrows will become free from sorrows. He will become a blessed one.

Extract Based Questions

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

1. The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.

a. Name the holiest of the dipping places on the River Ganges where the Buddha preached his first sermon.
b. What does Buddha’s first sermon reflect?
c. What did Gautama do after getting enlightenment?
d. How was he known as then?

Answer:
a. The Buddha preached his first sermon at Benares.
b. Buddha’s first sermon reflects Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.
c. After getting enlightenment, he began to teach and share his new understandings with the common people.
d. As he started preaching, he was known as Buddha, meaning, the awakened or the enlightened one.

2. Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless, and sat down at the wayside watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere.

a. Why do you think Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless?
b. How many sons did Kisa Gotami have?
c. What did she notice while sitting at the wayside?
d. What message did she get from the flickering and extinguishing lights of the city?

Answer:
a. It was because she could not find a house where no one had died.
b. Kisa Gotami had only one son.
c. She noticed the flickering lights of the city.
d. Just like the lights of the city, lives flicker up and are extinguished.

3. At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures and four years later he returned home to marry a princess. They had a son and lived for ten years as befitted royalty. At about the age of twenty-five, the prince heretofore shielded from sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.

a. What happened at the age of twelve?
b. What happened when he was out hunting?
c. Where was he sent away for schooling?
d. When did he marry?

Answer:
a. At the age of twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures.
b. He saw a sick man, then an aged man and then a funeral procession.
c. He was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures.
d. He married at the age of sixteen after completing his schooling.

Question 4: At about the age of twenty-five, the Prince, heretofore shielded from the sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a peepal tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point he became known as the Buddha (the Awakened or the Enlightened).

a. When was Gautam Buddha’s first encounter with suffering?
b. How did he react to it?
c. Why did the prince have no experience of the sufferings of the world till the age of twenty-five?
d. What effect did the sights have on him?

Answer: a. Gautam Buddha’s first encounter was when he went out for hunting.

b. He renounced the worldly comforts and left home to seek enlightenment from these sorrows. The prince had no experience of sufferings.

c. Because he was shielded from the sufferings of the world.

d. He went out for enlightenment.

Question 5: Buddha said, “The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. For there is not any means by which those that have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling, so mortals when born are always in danger of death. As all earthen vessels made by the potter end in being broken, so is the life of mortals. Both young and adult, both those who are fools and those who are wise, all fall into the power of death; all are subject to death.”

a. What did Buddha say about the life of the people?
b. What does a ripe fruit fear?
c. What happens after reaching age?
d. According to Buddha, is death avoidable?

Answer:
a. The life of people is troubled and brief and combined with pain.
b. A ripe fruit fears the danger of falling.
c. After reaching age there is death.
d. There is no means by which those that have been born, can avoid dying.

Question 6: Kisa Gotami had an only son and he died. In her grief she carried the dead child to all her neighbours, asking them for medicine, and the people said, “She has lost her senses. The boy is dead.” At length, Kisa Gotami met a man who replied to her request, “I can’t give thee medicine for thy child, but I know a physician who can.” And the girl said, “Pray to tell me, sir; who is it?” And the man replied, “Go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha.” Kisa Gotami repaired to the Buddha and cried, “Lord and Master, give me the medicine that will cure my boy.”

a. Why was Kisa Gotami in grief?
b. What did she ask of all her neighbours?
c. What had happened to Kisa Gotami’s only son?
d. Who did she carry her dead child to in her grief?

Answer:
a. Kisa Gotami was in grief because her son was dead.
b. She asked all her neighbours for medicine.
c. Kisa Gotami’s only son was dead.
d. She carried her dead child to all her neighbours.

Self- Assessment Test

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1: “Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life”, a father cannot save his son, for kinsmen their relations. Mark! While relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals are carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter. So the world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world. Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, his pain will be the greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale, yet the dead are not saved by his lamentation.

a. What is the fate of mortals?
b. Why do the wise not grieve?
c. Why does the writer compare mortals with an ox?
d. How does ‘lamentation’ harm a person?

Question 2: The Buddha answered, “I want a handful of mustard-seed”. And when the girl in joy promised to procure it, the Buddha added, “The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend.”

a. Identify ‘I’ in the passage.
b. What did the Buddha ask the girl for?
c. What was the condition imposed on the girl?
d. In this way, what did the Buddha want Kisa Gotami to understand?

Short Answer Questions

1. How do weeping and grieving affect us?
2. Where and when did Siddhartha become the Buddha?
3. What is Gautama Buddha’s opinion about death?
4. Who was Gautama Buddha?
5. What does she ask for the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?

Long Answer Questions

1. How did Gautama Buddha teach Gotami that life is full of pains and sorrows and death comes to all?

2. Buddha said, “The world is affected by death and decay, therefore, the wise men do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world.” Do you think the statement is appropriate even for today’s life? Write your views.

3. “If one seeks peace, one should draw out the sorrow of lamentation.” What do you infer from the Buddha’s statement?