Great wisdom often comes from understanding life's painful truths. NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 8 , The Sermon at Benares, tells the story of Gautama Buddha's journey from a sheltered prince named Siddhartha to an enlightened spiritual teacher. The chapter focuses on Buddha's first sermon and the touching tale of Kisa Gotami, a grieving mother who lost her only child. Through her story, Buddha teaches an important lesson about death, suffering, and the need to accept life's realities. The chapter explores themes of mortality, grief, wisdom, and finding peace through understanding. This chapter is part of the comprehensive NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight series, which covers all chapters in detail.
The NCERT Solutions for The Sermon at Benares provided here give simple, complete answers to all textbook questions, helping students understand Buddha's philosophy and teachings, learn about Kisa Gotami's realization, grasp important life lessons, resolve doubts quickly, and prepare confidently for school tests and board examinations.
Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 8 Question Answer
Q.
Activity
What is a sermon? Is it different from a lecture or a talk? Can this word also be used in a negative way or as a joke (as in “my mother’s sermon about getting my work done on time…”)?
Q.
Activity
Find out the meanings of the words and phrases given in the box.
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afflicted with be composed desolation
lamentation procure be subject to
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Q.
Activity
Have you heard of the Sermon on the Mount? Who delivered it?
Who do you think delivered a sermon at Benares?
Q.
Thinking about the text
When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Q.
Thinking about the text
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?
Q.
Thinking about the text
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?
Q.
Thinking about the text
Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Q.
Thinking about the text
How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief ’?
Q.
Thinking about the language
This text is written in an old-fashioned style, for it reports an incident more than two millennia old. Look for the following words and phrases in the text, and try to rephrase them in more current language, based on how you understand them.
• give thee medicine for thy child
• Pray tell me
• Kisa repaired to the Buddha
• there was no house but someone had died in it
• kinsmen
• Mark!
Q.
Thinking about the language
Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences?
For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings.
Q.
Writing
Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Teaching someone to understand a new or difficult idea.
Q.
Writing
Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Helping each other to get over difficult times.
Q.
Writing
Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Thinking about oneself as unique, or as one among billions of others.
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Class 10 Chapter 8 English First Flight Questions & Answers - The Sermon at Benares
Activity (Page 111)
Q1.What is a sermon? Is it different from a lecture or a talk? Can this word also be used in a negative way or as a joke (as in “my mother’s sermon about getting my work done on time…”)?
Solution:
A sermon is a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible. Yes this word can be used informally as a long or tedious piece of admonition or reproof or a lecture. "he understood that if he said any more he would have to listen to another lengthy sermon"
Q2. Find out the meanings of the words and phrases given in the box.
afflicted with be composed desolation
lamentation procure be subject to
Solution:
afflicted with- grievously affected with something or troubled (as by a disease)
be composed- may imply calmness or deliberateness.
desolation- being without company.
lamentation- an expression of sorrow, mourning, or regret.
procure - to get possession of (something)
be subject to - one that is placed under authority or control
Q3. Have you heard of the Sermon on the Mount? Who delivered it?
Who do you think delivered a sermon at Benares?
Solution:
The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: Sermo in monte) is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus Christ, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew. Sermon at Benares was delivered by Buddha.
Thinking about the text (Page 113)
Q1. When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Solution:
When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking for help to bring his dead son back to life. She doesn’t get any medicine or help to cure her son because there is no cure to bring the dead to life.
Q2.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?
Solution:
After she speaks with Buddha Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house seeking a handful of mustard seeds.
She does so because Buddha asks her to fetch a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had lost any family member. No, she doesn’t get mustard seeds because there was not a single house where no one had died in the family.
Q3. 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?
Solution:
It is the second time that Kisa Gotami understands that death is imminent and unavoidable. Yes, the Buddha wanted her to understand that one needs to accept the truth of death and relate to others’ grief.
Q4. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Solution:
The first time round Kisa was being selfish in her grief, as she thought only about her son. She went begging for cure for her dead son.
On the Buddha’s advice she goes out the second time seeking cure in the form of the mustard seeds for her dead son. Only then she realised that death is natural. There was no house where a beloved in the family had not died. Buddha made her realise how death was common to all. He changed her understanding about death and grief. He taught her about being selfless in grief.
Q5. How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief ’?
Solution:
Selfishness is central to ‘I’ and ‘my’. When one is selfish, he/ she does not relate to others’ pain or grief; he/ she is absorbed in his/ her concerns.
Thinking about the languag (Page 114)
Q1.This text is written in an old-fashioned style, for it reports an incident more than two millennia old. Look for the following words and phrases in the text, and try to rephrase them in more current language, based on how you understand them.
-
give thee medicine for thy child
-
Pray tell me
-
Kisa repaired to the Buddha
-
there was no house but someone had died in it
-
kinsmen
-
Mark!
Solution:
- give you medicine for your child
- Please tell me
- Kisa went to the Buddha
- There was no house where no one had die
- Relatives
- Listen!
Q2. Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences?
For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings.
Solution:
The single sentence using semicolons has a better rhythm. The three clauses in the sentence that are joined by semicolons are connected to each other in meaning. They are inter-linked and thus, the sentence conveys the meaning in more appropriate manner than when read separately as three simple sentences.
Writing (Page 116)
Q1. Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Teaching someone to understand a new or difficult idea.
Solution:
It is a well known fact that to teach someone is difficult because the perspective and understanding of each individual is different and for teaching one needs to understand the psyche and mindset. We know that once a person starts following a path, every suggestion that goes against that established belief is considered unwelcomed. This makes the situation all the more difficult.
Completely new level of wisdom and patience to help someone understand your own viewpoint is needed. At the time when a person is going through a period of grief or mental turmoil, they find understanding the bigger picture all the more irrelevant. Only a wise and patient person can teach the tensed individual any new idea.
Q2. Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Helping each other to get over difficult times.
Solution:
It is the duty of a community to help, when an individual is going through hard times, it becomes the responsibility of all the other community members to try to bring peace to the tensed individual. It is a reality that problems are a part and parcel of the life and it is impossible to bypass them at all times, but the support of others makes it easier to handle.
When someone is grieving the loss of a loved one, then the moral support and consoling from the fellow community members makes it relatively easier to get that phase of mental and emotional stress.
Q3. Write a page (about three paragraphs) on the following topic. You can think about the ideas in the text that are relevant to these topics, and add your own ideas and experiences to it.
Thinking about oneself as unique, or as one among billions of others.
Solution:
We as humans tend to be selfish in the short term and it is a well known characteristic trait. We tend to consider our sorrows, our own troubles a pedestal up than others. This idea is because of our understanding that our personal problems are exclusive and hence nobody else has gone through that level of suffering.
This is the basic reason behind the grief that one faces at certain instances. It becomes hard for anyone to see past that grief at that time. If a person is able to see the bigger picture and understand the harsh reality that nothing is exclusive in this world then the amount of grief and the degree of suffering can be drastically cut down.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 8 - FAQs
Q1. Why did Prince Siddhartha leave his comfortable palace life?
Prince Siddhartha lived a luxurious and protected life inside the palace, shielded from all forms of pain and suffering by his father. However, during his visits outside the palace, he encountered four sights that changed his perspective completely—a sick man, an aged person, a dead body being carried for cremation, and finally a wandering monk. These encounters made him realize that suffering, old age, and death are unavoidable parts of human existence, and no amount of wealth or power can prevent them. Deeply disturbed by these truths and seeking answers to end human suffering, he left his royal life, his wife, and newborn son at the age of twenty-five to search for enlightenment and spiritual wisdom.
Q2. What lesson did Buddha teach Kisa Gotami through the mustard seeds?
When Kisa Gotami came to Buddha with her dead son, desperately hoping he could bring the child back to life, Buddha agreed to help her but gave one condition. He asked her to bring mustard seeds from a house where no one had ever experienced death. Kisa Gotami went from door to door throughout the city but couldn't find a single household untouched by death—everyone had lost a parent, sibling, friend, or relative. Through this search, she gradually understood Buddha's lesson that death is universal and inevitable. No family is spared from loss and grief. This realization helped her accept her son's death and understand that clinging to the dead only increases personal suffering without changing reality.
Q3. What is the main message of Buddha's sermon at Benares and its importance for students?
Buddha's first sermon delivered at Benares teaches that suffering is an inseparable part of life, and death comes to everyone regardless of age, status, or wealth. He explained that grieving excessively and refusing to accept loss only creates more pain and mental disturbance. True peace comes from accepting life's impermanence and letting go of attachments. For Class 10 students, this chapter is important because it introduces Buddhist philosophy and teaches emotional maturity. In exams, students should be able to explain Siddhartha's transformation into Buddha, describe Kisa Gotami's journey from denial to acceptance, and discuss the universal nature of death and suffering. The chapter also encourages students to develop wisdom, compassion, and the ability to cope with life's difficulties with calmness and understanding.