First Flight ch10 The Sermon at Benares - CBSE Test Papers

CBSE Test Paper 01
The Sermon at Benares
  1. Why was Kisa Gotami sad? What did she do in her hour of grief?
  2. What sights made Gautama Buddha a monk?
  3. What does the Buddha say about the world?
  4. Which people are referred to as “wise” by the Buddha in his sermons?
  5. How did Buddha teach Kisa Gotami the truth of life?
  6. How do you usually understand the idea of selfishness? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she is 'selfish' on her grief? Is it natural for people to be selfish at times?
  7. How did Buddha seek and achieve enlightenment?
  8. Life is full of trials and tribulations. Kisa Gotami also passed through a period of grief in her life. How did she behave in those circumstances?
  9. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
    Mark! while relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortal 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.
    1. What is the fate of mortals?
    2. Why do the wise not grieve?
    3. What is the world afflicted with?
    4. Write the meaning of the word 'lamenting'.
  10. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
    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 became a beggar and went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. He wandered for seven years and finally sat down under a fig tree where he vowed to stay until enlightenment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bo Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings.
    1. Who was the Prince? Mention any two sights which moved him.
    2. Where did he sit?
    3. What did he do after he became enlightened?
    4. Which word in the passage means the same as 'a state of high spiritual knowledge'?
CBSE Test Paper 01
The Sermon at Benares
Solution
  1. Kisa Gotami was sad because her only son had died. In her hour of grief, she went from house to house in search of medicine to cure him. She had lost her senses and became selfish in wanting her son back. Then a man suggested her to go to the Buddha as he was the only one who could help her.
  2. At the age of twenty-five, on his way to hunting, Gautama Buddha saw an old, a sick man, a funeral procession and a monk asking for alms. This was his first encounter with the harsh realities of life. This incident moved him greatly and he became a monk and wandered in search of truth.
  3. The Buddha says that the life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. Death is inevitable and is the truth of life. The world is afflicted with death and decay; therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world.
  4. Buddha preached in his sermons that everything that is born will come to its end. Death is inevitable; both young and adult or fools and wise are subject to death. But the people who do not grieve knowing the terms of the world are called wise people. Wise people neither weep nor grieve.
  5. The Buddha taught Kisa Gotami the truth of life by asking her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a house where people had not lost a loved one to death. Kisa Gotami's futile search made her realize the bitter truth that sorrows are a part and parcel of life. Death is inevitable and is the truth of life, and one can attain peace only by accepting the truth.
  6. 'Selfishness' means when a person does something only for his own benefit or thinks only about himself/herself. He/she does not consider other people's happiness. Kisa Gotami is selfish in wanting her dead son to be alive. It is a mother's love which has blinded her. However, she is wrong in wanting that as she cannot see the reality of life. Death is the reality of life. Every one dies as death is common to all. It is perfectly natural for anyone to be selfish at times. When this desire becomes harmful to others or the demands become unrealistic, it is immoral and wrong. A little bit of selfishness is there in general in everyone and it is human nature to be selfish to meet your goals and satisfy your desires. Selfishness can only lead to unhappiness as most of the times, we will not meet our goals. Then, human beings will feel devastated. Hence, human beings should be more selfless and open-minded.
  7. Once Prince, Siddhartha Gautama, later known as Buddha, went for hunting. On the way, he saw a sick man, an old man, a funeral procession and a begging monk. Their sorrows gave rise to pathos in Buddha's heart. He renounced everything and went out into the world to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed. After having wandered for seven years, Buddha sat under a fig tree with a vow not to move from there till he was enlightened. After being enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree as "the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom)" and began to preach. He taught his sermons all over India. At that point he came to be known as the Buddha (awakened and enlightened).
  8. After the death of Kisa Gotami’s only child, she became very devastated. She carried her dead child to her neighbours in order to get medicine to bring him to life. Her neighbours thought that she had gone insane as she was unable to accept the fact that her child was dead. Then, she met Gautama Buddha who gave her an exercise to do. She was asked to collect mustard seeds from a house where no one had ever died. Then,  she went from one house to another but was unable to find a single house in the town where no one had died. That way, she realised that death is a part of life and anyone who is born is bound to die one day. Thus, Gautama Buddha changed her understanding of death through this exercise. Buddha told her that only the wise do not grieve, and they accept the reality of life and death. 
    1. The fate of mortals is their inevitable death. No living beings can avoid death or decay.
    2. Wise people do not grieve because they know the terms of the world and have accepted the truth that death is inevitable.
    3. The world is afflicted with death and decay.
    4. 'expressing sorrow'.
    1. The Prince was Gautama Buddha. The sight of an aged man and a funeral procession moved him.
    2. He sat under a 'fig tree'.
    3. After he became enlightened, he renamed the tree the 'Bo Tree' (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings.
    4. enlightenment.