NCERT Solutions for The Sermon at Benares Class 10 First Flight English
Book Solutions1
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 asking for medicine to bring her son back to life. She did not get it because there is no medicine which can bring a dead man back to life.2
Answer
After she speaks with the Buddha, Kisa Goutami again goes from house to house asking for mustard-seeds but in vain because there is no house where no one has lost a child, a husband, parent or friend.3
Answer
Kisa Gotami understood the second time that death is the ultimate truth. All creatures that are born must die one day. This is what Buddha wanted her understand.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 that death is common to all and that she was being selfish in her grief. She understood this only the second time because it was then that she found that there was not a single house where some beloved had not died.
First time round, she was only thinking about her grief and was therefore asking for a medicine that would cure her son. When she met the Buddha, he asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had died. He did this purposely to make her realize that there was not a single house where no beloved had died, and that death is natural. When she went to all the houses the second time, she felt dejected that she could not gather the mustard seeds. Then, when she sat and thought about it, she realized that the fate of men is such that they live and die. Death is common to all. This was what the Buddha had intended her to understand.
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 is preoccupation with I, me, and myself. Kisa Gotami was not in a position to think about other people’s grief. It is natural to feel sad over death of near and dear ones. But most people carry on their next responsibility of performing proper last rites of the dead. People seldom carry a dead body in the hope of some miracle happening to that. The family and the society always comes to be with those in hours of grief. But later on the life goes on. But Kisa Gotami was so engrossed in her sorrow that she forgot to think about live members of her family and society.
I
1. give thee medicine for thy child
2. Pray tell me
3. Kisa repaired to the Buddha
4. there was no house but someone had died in it
5. kinsmen
6. Mark!
Answer
1. Give you medicine for your child
2. Please tell me
3. Kisa went to the Buddha
4. There was no house where no one had died
5. Relatives
6. Listen
II
You know that we can combine sentences using words like and, or, but, yet and then. But sometimes no such word seems appropriate. In such a case was can use a semicolon (;) or a dash (−) to combine two clauses.
The second clause here gives the speaker’s opinion on the first clause.
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.
Answer
The single sentence using semicolons has a better rhythm. This is because the three parts of the sentence are connected to each other in their meanings. The second clause gives further information on the first clause. The third clause is directly related to both the first and the second. Their meanings are better conveyed when they are joined by semicolons.