CBSE Class 10 English The Sermon at Benares Important Questions Set 05

Answer: (a) At Benares.
(b) The River Ganges.
(c) The Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering, namely death.
(d) ‘Inscrutable’.

Teacher's Note:
1. The suffering referred to is death, which no one can escape.
2. Benares was chosen because it is holy to the people.

Answer: (a) She could not find a house where no one had died.
(b) She watched the lights of the city flicker up and go out.
(c) That human lives, like the lights, flicker for a time and are put out.
(d) ‘Put out’.

Teacher's Note:
1. The lights are a symbol for the short lives of mortals.
2. This realisation begins her acceptance of death.

Answer: (a) He says that life is troubled, brief and combined with pain.
(b) They cannot avoid dying.
(c) Ripe fruits that are likely to fall, and earthen vessels made by the potter that end up broken.
(d) That death is certain and can come to anyone at any time.

Teacher's Note:
1. Both similes make death seem natural and unavoidable.
2. Quote the potter’s vessels in your long answers.

Answer: (a) A handful of mustard seed.
(b) It must be taken from a house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend.
(c) She thought she would get medicine for her dead son.
(d) He wanted her to find out for herself that death comes to every family.

Teacher's Note:
1. The condition is the Buddha’s way of teaching through experience.
2. Her joy makes the later disappointment stronger.

Answer: (a) She was looking for a house where no one had died so that she could get mustard seed.
(b) They were willing to give the seed because they pitied her.
(c) It showed that every house had lost someone, so death is common to all.
(d) ‘Pitied’.

Teacher's Note:
1. The people’s reply gives the central lesson in a single line.
2. Note that mustard seed was freely offered but the condition could not be met.

Answer: Gautama Buddha was a prince named Siddhartha, born in 563 BC in a royal family of northern India. At twelve he was sent away for schooling in the sacred scriptures and at sixteen he returned and married a princess. They had a son, and he lived in luxury, shielded from the sufferings of the world.

Teacher's Note:
1. Give the facts in order: birth, schooling, marriage.
2. Keep it to the point.

Answer: At about twenty-five, while out hunting, he saw a sick man, an old man and a funeral procession, and then a monk begging for alms. These sights showed him the suffering of life and moved him so deeply that he became a beggar to seek an answer.

Teacher's Note:
1. Name the four sights.
2. The word ‘moved’ explains his change.

Answer: He wandered for seven years in search of truth. Finally he sat down under a fig tree and meditated until he gained enlightenment. The tree came to be called the Bodhi tree, the tree of wisdom, and he became the Buddha, the enlightened or awakened one.

Teacher's Note:
1. Mention the seven years and the tree.
2. Explain the meaning of ‘Buddha’.

Answer: He said that life is troubled, brief and combined with pain, and that nobody born can avoid dying. Mortals are in constant danger of death like ripe fruits ready to fall, and their lives end like earthen vessels made by the potter, which are all broken in the end.

Teacher's Note:
1. Use the two comparisons.
2. Remember that death spares both the young and the old.

Answer: No, she did not. Though people were ready to give the seeds, she could not find a house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend. Every home had known death.

Teacher's Note:
1. The answer is no, with a reason.
2. Mention the condition.

Answer: She had thought that only she was suffering, but she saw that death had touched every family. She realised that death is common to all and cannot be avoided, and that weeping does not bring the dead back.

Teacher's Note:
1. She understood the universal nature of grief.
2. Link ‘selfish’ with her earlier thinking.

Answer: The Buddha said that weeping brings no peace of mind and only adds to pain and harms the body. One who draws out the arrow of lamentation and learns to control grief gains peace and is free from sorrow.

Teacher's Note:
1. Mention the ‘arrow’ and peace of mind.
2. Keep it short.

Answer: Born a prince in 563 BC, Siddhartha was educated in the sacred scriptures and married at sixteen. He was shielded from suffering until, at about twenty-five, he saw a sick man, an old man, a funeral procession and a monk begging for alms. These sights made him leave his family and become a beggar in search of truth. After seven years of wandering he meditated under a fig tree and was enlightened. He was called the Buddha, and gave his first sermon at Benares.

Teacher's Note:
1. Put the events in order.
2. End with the first sermon at Benares.

Answer: Kisa Gotami, mad with grief for her only son, asked the Buddha for medicine. He asked her to bring a handful of mustard seed from a house where nobody had died. She went from door to door but every house had lost someone. By evening, tired and hopeless, she watched the city lights flicker and go out, and understood that human lives are like those lights. She returned to the Buddha, who comforted her. In this way he let her learn the truth by experience.

Teacher's Note:
1. Show the method of teaching by experience.
2. Mention the lights as her moment of realisation.

Answer: Grief had blinded her. She was too upset to accept that her son was dead and no medicine could revive him. The Buddha knew that a direct statement would not help, so he gave her a task that she herself would have to complete. When she heard the same reply from every household, she saw the truth with her own eyes. Her understanding was then deeper than any lecture could provide, and she became ready to hear the Buddha’s sermon on life and death.

Teacher's Note:
1. Contrast the effect of telling and showing.
2. Mention her state of mind.

Answer: The sermon teaches that death is a natural part of life and cannot be avoided, so grief should not be allowed to destroy us. We should accept loss with courage and not feel that we alone suffer. Compassion for others, who have also lost dear ones, helps us bear our own sorrow. The Buddha also shows that experience is the best teacher and that a calm mind brings peace.

Teacher's Note:
1. Pick three lessons and support them with the story.
2. Avoid repeating the whole story.