NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight - Prose Chapter 8 The Sermon at Benares
Chapter 8 Sermon at Benares of Class 10 English is an important chapter about the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha focusing on how he reached enlightenment and how he shared that wisdom with others. This chapter helps students understand deep topics like life, death, and detachment on a very simple and human level and explains how suffering is part of the journey in this life, as well as how wisdom helps to deal with suffering.
This chapter is according to the current NCERT Syllabus and follows the class 10 NCERT pattern. The NCERT Solutions offer directed answers and explanations that are clear and readable for the students. These solutions can help students gain confidence for their school exams, while also strengthening their learnings for any competitive tests like the English Olympiads.
1.0Download NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Prose Chapter 8 The Sermon at Benares : Free PDF
The Sermon at Benares is a meaningful life lesson with strong principles shared in the words of Buddha. The free PDF of the NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 8 The Sermon at Benares is available for download. Click the link below:
2.0Class 10 English First Flight Prose Chapter 8 The Sermon at Benares: Brief Explanation
This chapter The Sermon at Benares shares valuable lessons on life through the account of Buddha's experience and teachings. Here are the salient features:
- Understanding Suffering: Suffering is a component of every human life, and it is something no one can escape.
- Kisa Gotami: She learns that death is a natural course of life, we all experience it within our family.
- Letting Go of Attachment: Buddha teaches about how attachment causes pain, and you need to live above it.
- Wisdom of Experience: First-hand knowledge is the only way one can understand the realities of life.
- Path to Peace: The acceptance of suffering allows peace of mind and sound knowledge.
3.0NCERT Class 10 English First Flight Prose Chapter 8: Detailed Solutions
Thinking About the Text
1. When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans. When her son died, Kisa Gotami went from house to house. She asked for medicine. No, she didn’t get it because the people said that she had lost her senses and the boy was dead.
2. Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with Buddha. What does she ask for, the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans. Kisa Gotami again went from house to house after she spoke to the Buddha. Second time around she asked for a handful of mustard-seeds from a house where no one had ever died. She didn’t get it because there wasn’t any house where no one had lost any of their dear ones.
3. 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?
Ans. For the first time, Kisa Gotami went from house to house asking for a medicine that could cure her dead son. She was told that no medicine can make a dead man alive. The second time, she understood what Buddha wanted her to understand. Kisa Gotami understands that it is the fate of men, that their lives flicker up and extinguish again. Death is common to all. Buddha wanted her to understand this and also that in this valley of desolation there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness.
4. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
Ans. I think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time because after becoming weary and hopeless from her search for a deathless house, she sat down at the wayside watching the flickering and extinguishing lights of the city. This phenomenon leads her to understand that death is inevitable and common to all. Buddha changed her understanding by explaining that the life of morals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain. There isn’t any means by which you can avoid dying. Ripe fruits are early in danger of falling. All earthen vessels end in being broken.
5. How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief?’
Ans. By the idea of ‘selfishness’, I usually understand that a man thinks about himself only without any consideration for others’ interests or reality of the world. Yes, I agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief.’ For her son’s life she forgot the reality of this mortal world where all are subject to death. Weeping for her dead son would not bring him back to life.
4.0Key Features and Benefits of class 10 English Chapter 8 The Sermon at Benares
- The chapter has used Simple English which helps understanding and retention.
- Exercises are framed based on the current NCERT syllabus and CBSE exam pattern for Class 10.
- These are important because literature helps in the development of moral values and emotional awareness.
- Practicing solutions improves the answer writing ability for school exams and Olympiads.
- The step-by-step answers will enable a clearer understanding of concepts and enhance problem-solving abilities.
- This material can be useful as a revision tool before exams as well as for developing writing skills long-term.