The Sermon at Benares NCERT Solutions Class 10 PDF Download 2026

Ans: When her only son dies, Kisa Gotami is overwhelmed with grief. She carries the dead child to all her neighbours, going from house to house asking for medicine to cure him. No, she does not get it because her son is already dead, and people think she has lost her senses.

Ans: After speaking with the Buddha, she again goes from house to house, but this time she asks for a handful of mustard seeds. However, she must fulfill the Buddha's condition: the seeds must come from a house where no one—no child, husband, parent, or friend—has ever died.

Ans: The second time, after failing to find a single house untouched by death, she understands that death is common to all. She realizes that the fate of men is that their lives flicker up and are extinguished again. She understands that she was being selfish in her grief and that death is an inevitable part of human existence.

Ans: The first time, she was blinded by her extreme personal grief and the shock of losing her child. She could not think logically. The Buddha, instead of simply telling her the truth, sent her on an impossible quest. By physically knocking on doors and hearing others' tragedies ("the living are few, but the dead are many"), she practically experienced the universality of death. The Buddha helped her shift her focus from her own personal tragedy to the shared suffering of all humanity.

Ans: "Selfishness" usually means caring only about oneself and one's own desires, ignoring the feelings or situations of others. Yes, I agree that she was being "selfish in her grief." She was so consumed by her own pain that she failed to see that every single household she visited was dealing with or had dealt with similar losses. She wanted the laws of nature to bend specifically for her son, ignoring the universal truth that everyone must die.

Ans: Gautama Buddha preached his first sermon at the holy city of Benares (Varanasi). It is considered the most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges.

Ans: Prince Siddhartha had been shielded from the sufferings of the world. At the age of twenty-five, while out hunting, he chanced upon a sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession, and a monk begging for alms. These sights moved him so deeply that he left his palace to seek enlightenment.

Ans: Enlightenment refers to a state of supreme spiritual awakening. It means gaining a deep, ultimate understanding of the true nature of life, the causes of human suffering, and the path to overcome that suffering. Buddha attained this state after meditating under a Peepal tree for seven days.

Ans: Exhausted from her futile search, she sat down at the wayside, watching the lights of the city flicker up and then be extinguished into darkness. This visual made her realize that human life also flickers up and is eventually extinguished by death.

Ans: Mustard seeds are incredibly common and found in every Indian kitchen. It made the task seem very easy to Kisa Gotami initially. However, the true impossibility lay in the condition attached to it—finding a household untouched by death—which effectively taught her the lesson.

Ans: The people whose houses Kisa Gotami visited said this to her. When she asked if anyone had died in their family, they replied with this phrase, asking her not to remind them of their deepest grief, highlighting that every family has suffered multiple losses.

Ans: According to the Buddha's sermon, the life of mortals in this world is troubled, brief, and combined with pain. For there is not any means by which those that have been born can avoid dying. After reaching old age, there is death; of such a nature are living beings. He explains that just as ripe fruits are in early danger of falling, and just as earthen vessels made by the potter eventually break, similarly, mortals are always in danger of death.

Ans: Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince in North India. He was sent away for schooling in Hindu sacred scriptures at age twelve and returned to marry a princess. He lived a sheltered, royal life for ten years. However, at twenty-five, he witnessed the harsh realities of life: sickness, old age, death, and asceticism. Deeply moved, he abandoned his royal life, his wife, and his child, and wandered for seven years seeking answers. Finally, he meditated under a Peepal tree and achieved enlightenment after seven days, becoming the "Buddha" (the Awakened or the Enlightened).

Ans: The Buddha teaches that weeping and grieving are utterly useless because they cannot bring the dead back to life. Instead of providing peace, lamentation only increases suffering. A person who grieves will only make themselves sick and pale, harming their own body without resolving the situation. The dead cannot be saved by the lamentation of the living. Therefore, one must accept the truth of death to obtain peace of mind.

Ans: The Buddha uses two powerful metaphors to explain mortality:
1. Ripe Fruits: He says, "As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling, so mortals when born are always in danger of death." This shows that death is the natural conclusion of life, just as falling is for a ripe fruit.
2. Earthen Vessels: He compares human life to "earthen vessels made by the potter [that] end in being broken." This highlights the sheer fragility and temporary nature of the human body, which will eventually perish.

Ans: In modern life, people often struggle with the loss of loved ones, falling into depression and prolonged grief. The chapter provides a practical psychological approach: Acceptance. It teaches that isolating oneself in grief makes one selfish. By recognizing that suffering and death are universal experiences shared by all humans, a person can draw out the "arrow of lamentation" and find inner peace and emotional resilience to continue living.

Ans: The 'arrow' symbolizes the self-inflicted pain of crying, complaining, and grieving over a loss. Just as an arrow embedded in the body causes continuous physical pain until it is removed, holding onto grief causes continuous emotional pain. Removing the 'arrow' means accepting reality.

Ans: Her neighbours initially reacted with pity but also thought she had gone mad. They said, "The girl has lost her senses. The boy is dead," as they knew no medicine could revive a corpse.

Ans: A wise man she met on the street directed her to the Buddha. He told her that he could not give her medicine for her child, but he knew a physician who could—referring to Sakyamuni, the Buddha.

Ans: After meditating for seven days under a Peepal tree and attaining enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama renamed it the "Bodhi Tree," which translates to the "Tree of Awakening." It symbolizes the place where ignorance was destroyed and ultimate wisdom was achieved.