The Sermon at Benares: CBSE Class 10 NCERT Solution

Find the CBSE Class 10th English (Language and Literature) NCERT Solution for the chapter- 10, The Sermon at Benares. It has been framed keeping the Students' perspective in mind. This will help the Students with easy and simple understanding of the concept and technique employed in solving as per the CBSE Marking Scheme.

Few Sample Questions from this Chapter are given below:

Q. 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?

Ans. Actually, Buddha had asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where nobody ever died. But since death is something inevitable that strikes all the living things so, she could not find even a single house where no one had ever died. Thus she didn’t get the mustard seeds.

Q. 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?

Ans. The second time Kisa Gotami understood the fact that death is common to all and is integral to the life cycle. She also realized the fact that she was being selfish in her grief. Yes, this was all what the Buddha wanted her to understand so that she could raise above the worldly matters and let the departed soul to rest in peace.

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

Ans. It was only the second time when Kisa Gotami understood the fact that death is common to all and is integral to the life cycle. She also realized the fact that she was being selfish in her grief. Actually the second time she found that there was not even a single house where some beloved had not died. Before this, she was only thinking about her own grief. But when she met the Buddha, he tried to teach her practically and asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had died. But when she failed to meet that purpose, then she realized that the fate of men is such that they live and die. This was what the Buddha had intended her to understand.