We have Provided the NCERT/CBSE Solutions chapter-wise for Class 10 English First Flight Prose Chapter 9 The Sermon at Benares with Answers by expert subject teacher for latest syllabus and examination. Students also can take a free NCERT Solutions of The Sermon at Benares. Each question has right answer Solved by Expert Teacher.
NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Prose
Thinking About the Text
Q1. When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Answer: When Kisa Gotami’s son dies, she goes from house to house being despondent and asking people for medicine that can bring her son back to life. The people remark that she has lost her senses because the boy is dead. No one could help her because nothing can revive the dead.
Q2. 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: When she met the Buddha, he asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent, or friend. She went from house to house, but could not get the mustard seeds because there was not a single house where no one had died in the family.
Q3. 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: Kisa Gotami understands the truth of life that death is common to all and that she was being selfish in her grief. There was no house where some beloved had not died.
By sending her to different houses, Buddha wanted her to realize the fragile nature of human life. He also wanted her to rise above worldly matters so that the departed soul could rest in peace.
Q4. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Answer: In the first instance, Kisa Gotami could only see her grief of losing her young son. But, when she went from one house to another the second time to procure a handful of mustard seeds to save her dead son, she understood that everyone was dealing with the loss of a dear one. Not a single house was left untouched by death, where people had not lost their son, husband, parent or friend. At some point of time, everyone had experienced the pain of death and losing their loved ones. Feeling dejected, she sat down and realised that death is inevitable and the fate of mortal beings is to live and die someday. Through this instance, Gautama Buddha helped her to understand that death is common to all mortal beings and everyone is bound to die one day or the other.
Q5. 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 usually means thinking and working for own benefits. When we keep self before others, we are selfish. I don’t agree with Kisa Gotami that she was ‘selfish in her grief’. She had lost her only son and wanted some medicines for him. This act cannot be called a selfish act. She did not want the medicine at the cost of others. It was a desperate effort of a mother for her son which cannot be called an act of selfishness.
Thinking about the Language
I. 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.
(i) give thee medicine for thy child
(ii) Pray tell me
(iii) Kisa repaired to the Buddha
(iv) there was no house but someone had died in it
(v) kinsmen
(vi) Mark!
Answer: (i) Give you medicine for your child
(ii) Please tell me
(iii) Kisa went to the Buddha
(iv) There was no house where no one had died
(v) Relatives
(vi) 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.
She has no interest in music; I doubt she will become a singer like her mother.
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.
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