Extracts of The Sermon at Benares | Class 10 | English | First Flight |

Extracts of The Sermon at Benares | Class 10 | English | First Flight |

Extract 1

At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures and four years later he returned home to marry a princess. They had a son and lived for ten years as befitted royalty. At about the age of twenty-five, the Prince, heretofore shielded from the sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.

Q1. Name the chapter.

Ans : The Sermon at Benares by Betty Renshaw

Q2. Who is the author of Madam Rides the Bus?

Ans : Betty Renshaw

Q3. What moved Gautama Buddha?

Ans : Suffering of the world and its people moved Gautama Buddha to seek enlightenment.

Q4. What does the word ‘Alms’ mean?

Ans : It means money or food given to poor people.

Q5. What does the word ‘Heretofore’ mean?

Ans : It means ‘Before now’.

We would love your reading of  Formal Letters, Notice Writing, Formal & Informal Invitation, Classified Advertisement, Debate Writing, Speech Writing, Article Writing, Report Writing, Note Making, Poster Making, Short Story Writing, Leave Application Writing, Descriptive Paragraph Writing for scoring higher in upcoming examination.

Extract 2

He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a peepal tree, where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point he became known as the Buddha (the Awakened or the Enlightened). The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.

Q1. Who is ‘He’ in the first line?

Ans : Gautama Buddha

Q2. What was the tree, where Gautama Buddha sat, named?

Ans : Bodhi Tree

Q3. Where did the Buddha preach his first sermon?

Ans : Benares

Q4. What does the word ‘Inscrutable’ mean?

Ans : It means ‘Impossible to understand’.

To read the summary and NCERT Solutions of The Sermon at Benares : Click Here

Extract 3

At length, Kisa Gotami met a man who replied to her request, “I cannot give thee medicine for thy child, but I know a physician who can.” And the girl said, “Pray tell me, sir; who is it?” And the man replied, “Go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha.” Kisa Gotami repaired to the Buddha and cried, “Lord and Master, give me the medicine that will cure my boy.”

Q1. What had happened to Kisa Gotami’s son?

Ans : He had died all of a sudden.

Q2. Whom did the man refer Kisa Gotami to?

Ans : He referred her to Gautama Buddha.

Q3. What did Kisa Gotami ask Gautama Buddha for?

Ans : Kisa Gotami wanted Gautama Buddha to cure and 

Q4. What does the word ‘Thee’ mean?

Ans : It means ‘You’.

Extract 4

Poor Kisa Gotami now went from house to house, and the people pitied her and said, “Here is mustard seed; take it!” But when she asked, “Did a son or daughter, a father or mother, die in your family?” they answered her, “Alas! the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief.” And there was no house but some beloved one had died in it.

Q1. Who made Kisa Gotami go house to house? Why?

Ans : Gautama Buddha made Kisa Gotami go house to house to make her realise that death is inevitable. Everyone has to die one day or the other.

Q2. What did Kisa Gotami find after visiting each and every house?

Ans : She found that there was not even a single house where some beloved had not died.

Q3. What does the adverb ‘Alas’ symbolise?

Ans : It symbolises ‘Bad Luck’.

Q4. What did the people not want Kisa Gotami to do?

Ans : People did not want Kisa Gotami to remind them of their parted beloved ones by asking about them.

Extract 5

Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless, and sat down at the wayside watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere. And she considered the fate of men, that their lives flicker up and are extinguished again. And she thought to herself, “How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all; yet in this valley of desolation there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness.”

Q1. Pick up the synonym of the word ‘Fluctuate’ from this extract.

Ans : Flicker

Q2. What did Kisa Gotami learn from that episode?

Ans : She got to learn that death is inevitable.

Q3. Pick the antonym of the word ‘Selfless’ from the extract.

Ans : Selfish

Q4. Who taught a lesson of death being inevitable to Kisa Gotami?

Ans : Gautama Buddha

We would love your reading of The Making of a Scientist, Madam Rides the Bus, The Sermon at Benares, Glimpses of India, The Proposal, Bholi, The Necklace, The Hack Driver, Amanda, Animals & The Tale of Custard The Dragon for better understanding of the chapters/poems and scoring higher.

Extract 6

“Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life, a father cannot save his son, nor kinsmen their relations. Mark! while relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals are carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter. So the world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world.

Q1. Which literary device has been used in ‘Like an ox’?

Ans : Simile has been used here.

Q2. How do the wise react on their beloved’s death according to Buddha?

Ans : According to Buddha, the wise do not grieve at the death of their beloved for they know the terms of the world.

Q3. Find out the synonym of the word ‘Wailing’ from the following.

Ans : Lamenting

Q4. What does the word ‘Mortal’ mean?

Ans : One who is subject to death.

Related

Do share this post if you liked Extracts of The Sermon at Benares. For more updates, keep logging on BrainyLads