First Flight, Lesson:9

 Class:X

Book: First Flght

Lesson:09

The Sermon at Benares 

Questions and Answers 

Short Answer Type

Question 1.

How did Gautama came to be known as the Buddha?

Answer:

Siddhartha Gautama wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a Peepal tree till he got enlightenment. After seven days of enlightenment, he renamed the ‘Bodhi Tree’ and began to teach and to share his new understanding and came to be known as the Buddha.

Question 2.

Why did prince Siddhartha leave the palace and became a beggar?

Answer:

While out hunting prince Siddhartha chanced upon a sick man, an aged man and then a funeral procession and he also saw a monk begging. He realised that world is full of sorrow so he left the palace in the search of enlightenment.

Question 3.

How did Buddha get enlightenment?

Answer:

Siddhartha Gautama wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a Peepal tree till he got enlightenment. After seven days of enlightenment, he renamed the ‘Bodhi Tree’ and began to teach and to share his new understanding and came to be known as the Buddha.

Question 4.

Why did the Buddha choose Benares to preach his first sermon?

Answer:

The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares. This city is regarded as the most holy of the dipping places of the River Ganga. That sermon has been preserved. It reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one kind of suffering which cannot be understood.

Question 5.

What did Kisa Gotami say to Buddha? What reply did he give to her?

Answer:

Kisa Gotami went to the Buddha and asked him to give her the medicine to make her son alive. The Buddha asked her to bring him a handful of mustard seed. It should be brought from a house where no one had died.

Question 6.

Why was Kisa Gotami sad? What did she do in her grief?

Answer:

Kisa Gotami’s only son died and she was full of grief. She carried the dead son to all her neighbours. She asked them for medicine so that her son can be alive again. The people remarked that she had lost her senses.

Question 7.

What did Kisa Gotami do after the Buddha had asked her for a handful of mustard seed?

Answer:

Kisa Gotami went from house to house to get a handful of mustard seed. People gave her the mustard

seed. But when she asked if anyone had died in their family, they regretfully told her that the livings were few, but the deads were many. Kisa Gotami found no house where someone had not died.

Question 8.

What did the Buddha want to explain to Kisa Gotami?

Answer:

The Buddha wanted to explain to Kisa Gotami that man cannot get peace of mind by grieving. On the contrary, his pain will be greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale. A man who overcomes all sorrows will be free from sorrow and will be blessed.

Question 9.

Why did Kisa Gotami go from house to house?

Answer:

Kisa Gotami was a lady who lived in Benares. Her only son had died and she could not’bear it. She went from house to house to cure his dead son. Someone told him about the Buddha and she reached him to cure his dead son.

Question 10.

What was the basic idea of the Buddha’s preaching?

Answer:

The basic idea of the Buddha’s preaching was that death is the ultimate truth of life. It is that every living being has to die one day. No one can escape from death. Grief cannot console anyone. We must accept this universal truth.