NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight

The Sermon at Benares

Updated For 2024-2025
Exams

 

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?

Answer:
Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking for medicine to bring her dead son
back to life. She does not get the medicine because everyone knows that no
medicine can bring the dead back to life. The villagers think that Kisa Gotami
has lost her senses due to grief.

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?

Answer:
After speaking with the Buddha, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking for
a handful of mustard seeds. However, the seeds must come from a house where no
one has ever lost a family member. She does not get the mustard seeds because
every household she visits has experienced death and loss, making her realize
that death is universal.

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?

Answer:
The second time, Kisa Gotami understands that death is inevitable and a natural
part of life. She realizes that everyone experiences the loss of loved ones,
and no one can escape death. This is exactly what the Buddha wanted her to
understand — that death is a part of the cycle of life, and one must accept it
without clinging to selfish grief.

Q.4. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only
the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?

Answer:
Kisa Gotami understood the reality of death only the second time because,
initially, she was blinded by her own grief and desperation. The Buddha changed
her understanding by gently guiding her to seek the mustard seeds from a house
that had not experienced death. Through her own experiences of visiting houses
and hearing the stories of loss, Kisa Gotami was able to realize the universal
nature of death.

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’?

Answer:
The usual understanding of ‘selfishness’ is focusing on one’s own needs and
desires without considering others. In the case of Kisa Gotami, her intense
grief made her focus solely on her own loss, and she was unable to see that
others too had suffered similar losses. I agree with Kisa Gotami’s realization
that her grief was selfish, as she had been seeking a solution for her own
pain, unaware that death is a common experience for all.

Thinking About Language

Q.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
  Answer: Give you medicine for your child.
• Pray tell me
  Answer: Please tell me.
• Kisa repaired to the Buddha
  Answer: Kisa went to the Buddha.
• there was no house but someone had
  died in it
  Answer: Every house had experienced a death.
• kinsmen
  Answer: Family members or relatives.
• Mark!
  Answer: Pay attention!

Q.2. Break up the sentence into 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.”

Answer:

• There is no way for those who are
  born to avoid death.
• After reaching old age, death
  follows.
• That is the nature of living
  beings.