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The Sermon at Benares Extra Questions and Answers English First Flight Chapter 10
Summary
This chapter focuses on Gautama Buddha and the first sermon that he preached in Benares.
Gautama Budhha was born a prince in Northern India. He was then known as Siddharta Gautama. He was sent away for schooling at twelve. He read about the Hindu scriptures. After four years, he returned to get married to a princess. They had a son. The prince Siddhartha Gautama enjoyed his life in royalty for ten years.
At the age of twenty-five, he realised the meaning of grief and pain of human beings. He encountered a sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession, and a monk begging for alms on his way to hunting. These sights disturbed him. He wanted to seek enlightenment about the miseries he witnessed.
He wandered around for seven years and sat under a peepal tree. He promised to meditate there until enlightenment came to him. He meditated throughout. He was enlightened after seven years. He renamed the tree as Bodhi Tree, which meant the Tree of Knowledge. He began to teach and share his knowledge to enlighten the people. He was then known as Buddha, which meant the Awakened or the Enlightened.
Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares. It was one of the holiest places on the river Ganga. The first sermon is stated in this chapter. The sermon is about Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.
The sermon talked about a woman Kisa Gotami. Her only son died. She wandered around the village, asking people for the medicine to cure her dead son. Her neighbors commented that she had lost her senses.
One day, she met a man who asked her to visit Sakyamuni, the Buddha. She went to him and cried and told about her sufferings. She requested him to cure her boy. The Buddha stated that he wanted a handful of mustard seeds.
The woman was happy. She thought he would now prescribe her one of the ways to cure her son. On getting the mustard seeds, the Buddha stated that the mustard seeds must be given to a person or a family who had not lost a child, a husband, a parent or a friend.
Kisa Gotami went around from house to house. Everybody pitied her and wanted to take the mustard seeds. But as soon as they heard her condition, they denied it. They requested the lady not to remind them of their most profound grief. Thus, she found no house where anybody had not died.
The woman became tired and hopeless. She sat down on the streets, watching the lights of the city. She saw that the lights flickered on and off, and suddenly there was darkness again. At last, she understood that the fate of men was similar to that of the lights. She realised that she was selfish in her grief.
She understood that death was common to all. But despite all this sadness, there is a path that leads to immortality. It is for people who have sacrificed all selfishness.
The Buddha stated that a human being’s life is a mixture of pain, grief, and happiness. Nobody can avoid anything. People who are born are bound to die. This is the nature of human beings. He compared the life of human beings to an earthen pot. Just like all earthen vessels made by potter break at the end, so is the life of human beings! All human beings, young and adult, foolish and wise, have to die.
He states that nobody can stop death, be it a parent, a friend, or a relative. They can lament the end of their near and dear ones, but they cannot stop it from happening. He states that wise men do not experience grief because they know the terms of the world.
Buddha says that people will not obtain peace of mind from weeping or grieving. It will instead intensify their pain, and their body will suffer. The person will make himself sick and pale, but the dead will not return. The lamentation does not save the dead.
The one who seeks peace should not let lamentation, grief, and complaint waver him. The ones who have got rid of these and have composed themselves will obtain peace of mind. The ones who have overcome sorrow will be free from all suffering and be blessed.
Very very short questions:
1.) What was Buddha’s real name?
Ans: Buddha’s real name was Siddharta Gautama.
In case you are missed :- Previous Chapter Extra Questions
2.) What did Buddha name the peepal tree after he gained enlightenment?
Ans: Buddha renamed the tree as Bodhi Tree.
Short questions
1.) What did Buddha see when he went hunting?
Ans: After he went hunting, Buddha saw that there was pain and suffering outside the walls of the royal kingdom.
2.) What does Buddha say about sorrow and grief?
Ans: Buddha said that sorrow and grief are part of one’s life. One should learn lessons from it and emerge out stronger.
Essay type questions
1.) How was Buddha’s life before he gained enlightenment?
Ans: Buddha was born to a wealthy household. He was a prince of Northern India…
2.) Elaborate the first sermon of Buddha.
In case you are missed :- Next Chapter Extra Questions