The Sermon at Benares- Extract Based comprehension test Questions

The Sermon at Benares

By– Betty Crenshaw

Extract Based / comprehension test Questions and Answers of The Sermon at Benares

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow.

1.”The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It reflects the Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.”

(a) Name the holiest of the dipping places on the River Ganges where the Buddha preached his first sermon.

(b) What does Buddha’s first sermon reflect?

(d) How was he known as then?

Ans. (a) Benares.

(b) Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.

(d) As he started preaching, he was known as Buddha, meaning, the awakened or the enlightened one.

2. “Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless and sat down at the wayside watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere.”

(a) Why do you think Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless?

(b) How many sons did KisaGotamihave?

(d) What message did she get from the flickering and extinguishing lights of the city?

Ans. (a) It was because she could not find a house where no one had died.

(b) Only one.

(d) Their lives flicker up and are extinguished.

3. At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures and years later he returned home to marry a princess. They had a son and lived for ten Y befitting royalty. At about the age of twenty-five, the prince heretofore shielded from sufferings of the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged than a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so move that he at once became a beggar and went out into the world to seek enlighten concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.

(a) What happened at the age of twelve?

(b) What happened when he was out hunting———-

(d) When did he marry?

Ans. (a) At twelve, he was sent away for schooling in the Hindi; sacred seen

(b) He saw a sick man, then human image man and then a funeral procession-

(d) He married at the age en after completing his schooling.

4. At about the age of tweet e, the prince, hereto the world, while out hunting chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man than a farmer the procession, and finally a monk begging for alms. These sights so moved him that he at once ante 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 Buddha Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point, he became known as the Buddha (the Awakened or the Enlightened).

(a) Name the Prince.

(b) What are the sights of sufferings that the Prince saw?

(d) What did he vow?

(a) When was Gautam Buddha’s first encounter with suffering?

(b) How did he react to it?

(d) What effect did the sights have on him?

Ans. (a) The name of the Prince was ‘Siddhartha’.

(b) He saw a sick man, then an aged man, and then a funeral procession.

(d) He vowed to stay under the fig tree until he was enlightened.

(a) Gautam Buddha’s first encounter was when he went out hunting.

(b) He renounced the worldly comforts and left home to seek enlightenment from these Sorrows.

(d) He went out for enlightenment.

5. Buddha said, “The life of mortals in this world is troubled and 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. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling, so mortals, when born, are always in danger of death. As all earthen vessels made by the Potter end in being broken, so is the life of mortals. Both young and adult, both those who are fools and those who are wise, all fall. into the power of death, all are subject to death.”

(a) What did the Buddha say about the life of the people?

(b) What does a ripe fruit fear?

(d) What, according to Buddha, death is avoidable?

Ans. (a) The life of people is troubled and brief and combined with pain.

(b) A ripe fruit fears the danger of falling.

(d) There is not any means by which those that have been born, can avoid dying.

6. Kisa Gotami had an only son and he died. In her grief she carried the dead child to all her neighbours, asking them for medicine, and the people said, “She has lost her senses dead.” At length, Kisa Gotamimet a man who replied to her request; “I can’t give thee! nines for thy child, but I know a physician who can.” And the girl said, “Pray to tell me, sir, o is it?” And the man replied, “Go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha.” Kisa Gotami repaired to tile Buddha and cried: “Lord and Master, give me the medicine that will cure my boy”.

(a) Why was Kisa Gotami in grief?

(b) What did she ask of all her neighbours?

(d) Who did she carry her dead child to in her grief?

Ans. (a) Because her son was dead.

(b) She asked them for medicine.

(d) To all her neighbours.

7. Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life, a father cannot save his son, for kinsmen their relations. 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. Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, his pain will be the greater and his body will suffer. He will make himself sick and pale, yet the dead are not saved by his lamentation.

(a) What is the fate of mortals?

(b) Why do the wise not grieve?

(d) How does ‘lamentation’ harm a person?

Ans. (a) The fate of mortals is death.

(b) Wise does not grieve because they know the terms of the world that one who is must die one day. They neither weep nor grieve.

(d) It makes one sick and pale; one does not get peace of mind.

8. The Buddha answered: “I want a handful of mustard seeds.” And when the girl in joy promised to procure it, the Buddha added: “The mustard seeds must be taken house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend.”

(a) Identify ‘I’ in the passage.

(b) What did the Buddha ask the girl for?

(d) In this way, what did the Buddha want Kisa Gotami to understand?

Ans. (a) Buddha.

(b) To procure mustard seeds.

(d) Buddha wanted Kisa Gotami to understand that all men who live have to die. pea is inevitable and cannot be avoided.