The Sermon at Benares
Introduction
‘The Sermon at Benares’ is a written by Betty Renshaw. The chapter covers the journey of Gautama Buddha from princely life to his saintly life. In the wake of seeing the sufferings of the world, he chose to surrender every single common delight and sought enlightenment. He at long last achieved enlightenment under a tree at Bodhi tree. His first sermon was delivered at Benares close to the bank of the Ganges.
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha is the founder of the Buddhist Religion. He was an otherworldly instructor who had picked up enlightenment in the wake of seeing the World’s agonies and avarice. Gautama Buddha was born as a prince named Siddhartha Gautama in Northern India. When he was 12 he was sent for schooling Hindu Sacred Scriptures. After four years, he returned home and got hitched by a princess. They carried on with a regal life for a long time.
Kisa Gotami
Kisa Gotami was a young mother whose only child had died. She was a cherishing and minding mother, and yet, she wound up narrow-minded and needed to recover her child after a death.
Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment
He was shielded from the sufferings and miseries of the world. At some point, he saw a debilitated man, an old man, a burial procession and a monk begging for money and food. He was deeply moved by the plight of people suffering from poverty, sickness and old age. This made him wonder how the suffering of the world could be ended. To find the answer to the question he at once renounced his family, fortune and kingdom in the pursuit of enlightenment. He voyaged carelessly for a long time and practised yogic disciplines and meditation. He also practised severe forms of asceticism; almost to the point of death by starvation. Finally, he sat under a peepal tree until the point he achieved enlightenment. After seven days when he got enlightened, he renamed the tree as Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom). There, he started to educate and share his insight and became famous as Buddha.
Gautama Buddha’s Goal
Buddha’s main objective was to eliminate human suffering. His “Four Noble Truths” are key to eliminating all human agony. The first noble truth says that life is full of suffering and pain, the second noble truth is that pain is caused by human desires and ambitions, the third noble truth says that liberation from pain and suffering is possible and the fourth noble truth says how to obtain this liberation. It describes the Eightfold Path leading to Nirvana, a state of perfect bliss.
Gautama Buddha’s First Sermon
Buddha lectured his first lesson in the city of Benares. It is the holiest of the plunging places on the waterway Ganges. This lesson mirrors Buddha’s shrewdness about the sort of enduring that is difficult to decipher.
Summary of The Story The Sermon at Benares
1. What is a sermon? How is it different from a lecture?
Ans. A sermon is a religious or moral talk usually given by a religious leader to liberate the people from their sinful nature and mould them towards the right path. It is quite different from a lecture. A lecture is a deliverance provided by a subject expert on any topic-scientific, social, political etc to make the audience understand some concept. The lectures are delivered in classrooms.
OR
Ans. A sermon is a religious talk or a speech made by a renowned, religious personality in order to make people morally and spiritually uplifted and enlightened.
It is different from a lecture. A lecture means a general topic related to any subject given in a college or university.
2. When her son died, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans. When her only son died, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking if she can get some medicine that can save her son’s life who has died. She does not get any medicine because the boy was dead and possibly the dead cannot come to senses with any medicine.
OR
Ans. Kisa Gotami goes from house to house in the hope of getting some wonder drug with which would rekindle the life in her dead child. She is unable to get that medicine. It is a universal truth that once somebody dies, no medicine can bring back life to him or her. Death is the final destination of life’s journey.
3. Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What she asks for the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
Ans. After she speaks with the Buddha, Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house the second time. As per the directions of the Buddha, she now asks the people for a handful of mustard seeds provided they have not lost anyone in their families. But she could not get the mustard seeds because there is not a single house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend.
OR
Ans. When Kisa Gotami asks for Buddha’s help he asks her to bring a handful of mustard seeds. But there is a condition that the mustard seed should be from a house where nobody has ever died. Death is as certain as birth. Nothing is immortal on this Earth. Everything gets finished in due course of time. Kisa Gotami is up to the impossible task of finding a household where nobody had ever died.
4. 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. Kisa Gotami understands that death is inevitable. It is common to all.No one can escape it. She realises the fact that the fate of men is like the lights which flicker up and extinguish again. The Buddha also wanted her to understand the same fact.
OR
Ans. Kisa Gotami, at first, is not able to understand the mysterious reality of life and death because she being a mother is very distressed and disheartened by the death of her only son. But when the Buddha tells her to get the mustard seeds from the family which has never encountered death, she returns unsuccessful and ponders over the reality of life. The Buddha wanted her to realise that death is an unavoidable reality of life.
OR
After she was unable to find a house as per Buddha’s criteria she understands the inevitability of death. She understands how futile it is to cry endlessly over the death of someone. She understands that life should go on as people carry on with their life after abrupt intervals of tragedies in their lives. The Buddha wanted her to realize that death is an unavoidable reality of life.
5. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? In what way did Buddha change her understanding?
Ans. Kisa Gotami understands this the second time only because she does not find any family where no one has died. She realises the fact that all people are to fall into the power of death. The Buddha changes her understanding simply by making her fetch a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one has died. She goes from house to house but She does not find a single house where no one has lost child, husband, parent or friend. In this way, she comes to know that death is common to all.
OR
Ans. Kisa Gotami, at first, was very emotional and hopeless at the death of her only son. She felt that this tragedy had befallen only her. But when she went to get the seeds to cure her son, she grieved all those families in order to overcome her own grief. She felt that she had been very selfish in her cause and understood that death was common to all and it led a human being to immortality without a wink of selfishness.
OR
When she was seeking miracle medicine she was not in a position to understand the certainty of death. She was only thinking about her grief when she went in search of mustard seeds she could understand that grief strikes everybody. She understood that she was not the only person on this planet who had lost a dear child. Buddha guided her to discover the sorrow of others. Most of us have a tendency to think about ourselves and that is why we feel extremely happy or extremely sad. If we try to take a wider perspective then we can be in a position to withstand the ups and downs of life in a better way.
6. How do you usually understand the idea of selfishness? Do you agree with Lisa Vitamin that she was being selfish in her grief?
Ans. A selfish man is one who acts for his own sake. One whose actions are directed to benefit oneself owns selfishness. It is the pursuit of something regardless of its nature and the gratification of emotions regardless of their source.
We agree that Kisa Gotami was being selfish in her grief because she desired the medicine that can cure her dead boy which was not possible.
OR
Ans. Selfishness is a preoccupation with me, me and me. It means to harm the interests of others in order to fulfil our personal interests. It also means to make personal benefits by depriving others of those benefits.
Kisa Gotami was certainly ’selfish in her grief’ because in order to cure her son from an incurable disease of death, she made many families remember their beloved members who had died. Thus, in order to overcome her grief, she grieved many mothers and families and was obviously ’selfish’.
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