Hi Everyone!! This article will share Class 10 The Sermon at Benares Textbook Questions & Answers.
I have also shared The Sermon at Benares Character Sketch and The Sermon at Benares Important Questions & Answers so, make sure to check these posts as well.
Class 10 The Sermon at Benares Textbook Questions & Answers
Question 1: 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 dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house to ask for some medicine that can revive her dead son. But she doesn’t get it as there is no such medicine that can bring the dead person back to life.
Question 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?
Answer: After speaking to Buddha, Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house asking for a handful of mustard seeds. Buddha had asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no near and dear one had ever died. However, she fails to find any such house where death has not claimed any life.
Question 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?
Answer: From her first visit to people around, Kisa neither learnt any lesson nor she got over her desire to get his dead son back to life. However, on her second visit, she became able to reconcile to her son’s death.
When Kisa failed to find any such house where no near and dear one had ever died, she got the revelation that death is common to all and is inevitable. Her second visit gave her the wisdom that she was being selfish in her grief. The Buddha wanted her to learn all this through a personal experience and he was able to put across to her the inevitability of death.
Question 4: Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Answer: When Kisa visited around for the first time, she was feeling that his son’s death was peculiar to her and nobody else had any experience of it. However, during her second visit, she found that there is no such house where death has not claimed any life. Buddha changed her understanding in the sense that she now realised that death is inevitable and also understood the significance of selfishness. This change in her attitude and understanding helped her in realizing the fact that her only son could not be brought back to life.
Question 5: How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief’?
Answer: Selfishness means thinking of one’s own needs and interests without having any concern about others. Kisa was so deeply grieved in her own sorrow that she did not understand or realise the pain of others. Like a selfish person, she kept lamenting her loss.
So, these were Class 10 The Sermon at Benares Textbook Questions & Answers.