Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
The Sermon at Benares (Class 10 English Chapter 8): Kisa Gotami's mustard-seed
The textbook presents Gautama Buddha - born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in northern India, and dated by the textbook 563 B.C. to 483 B.C. - preaching his first sermon at Benares, the holiest of the dipping places on the River Ganges, and that sermon is preserved in this chapter. It reaches us through the story of Kisa Gotami, whose only son has died. When she begs the Buddha for a medicine to cure her boy, he sends her for a handful of mustard-seed - from a house where no one has ever lost a child, husband, parent or friend. Her search teaches her what no medicine could. This page gives a summary, themes and practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - from Siddhartha to the Buddha
In the textbook's account, Siddhartha Gautama began life as a prince in northern India. At twelve he was sent away for schooling in the Hindu sacred scriptures; four years later he returned to marry a princess, and they had a son and lived ten years as befitted royalty. Then, at about the age of twenty-five, the prince - shielded till then from suffering - chanced upon a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally a monk begging for alms while out hunting. The sights moved him so deeply that he went out into the world at once to seek enlightenment. He wandered for seven years, then sat down under a peepal tree and vowed to stay until enlightenment came; enlightened after seven days, he renamed it the Bodhi Tree, the Tree of Wisdom, and became the Buddha - the Awakened or the Enlightened.
2. Summary - Kisa Gotami and the mustard-seed
Kisa Gotami's only son dies, and in her grief she carries the dead child to all her neighbours asking for medicine; the people say she has lost her senses. A man directs her to Sakyamuni, the Buddha, who tells her to bring a handful of mustard-seed - but it must come from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend. She goes from house to house: everyone offers mustard-seed, but every house has its dead - 'the living are few, but the dead are many.' Weary and hopeless, she sits at the wayside watching the lights of the city flicker up and go out, and understands: how selfish she has been in her grief - death is common to all, and only the one who surrenders all selfishness finds the path out of this valley of desolation to immortality.
3. Themes - the sermon: death is common to all
The sermon itself teaches that the life of mortals is troubled, brief and combined with pain - there is no means by which those born can avoid dying. As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling, and as all earthen vessels made by the potter end in being broken, so mortals are always in danger of death; young and adult, fools and wise, all fall into its power, and a father cannot save his son. Weeping and grieving bring no peace of mind - they only make the pain greater and the body sick and pale, and the dead are not saved by lamentation. Peace comes to the one who draws out the arrow of lamentation, complaint and grief, becomes composed, and overcomes sorrow.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Name the four sights
Choose the method: Sickness, age, death, a monk.
EZT practice question
What set Siddhartha on the path to becoming the Buddha?
Show the worked solution
- At about the age of twenty-five, while out hunting, he chanced upon a sick man.
- Then an aged man, then a funeral procession.
- Finally a monk begging for alms - and shielded till then from suffering, he was so moved that he left his royal life at once to seek enlightenment.
Answer: Four sights he chanced upon while out hunting at about the age of twenty-five - a sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession, and a monk begging for alms. Shielded until then from the sufferings of the world, he was so moved that he left his royal life at once to seek enlightenment concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.
Check: Order matters: sickness, old age, death, then the monk who shows a way out.
Watch for this: Do not say he went to find the sights - the account says he chanced upon them while out hunting.
Now try it yourself
What was Siddhartha's early life like, in the textbook's account?
Check your answer
A prince of northern India, sent away at twelve to study the Hindu sacred scriptures, married four years later to a princess, father of a son, living ten years in royalty, shielded from suffering.
The shielding is the setup - it explains why four chance sights could overturn a life.
Trace the seven years
Choose the method: Wandering, then a vow.
EZT practice question
How long did Siddhartha seek enlightenment, and where did he find it?
Show the worked solution
- He wandered for seven years seeking enlightenment.
- Then he sat down under a peepal tree and vowed to stay until enlightenment came.
- After seven days he was enlightened - he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree, the Tree of Wisdom, and became the Buddha, the Awakened or the Enlightened.
Answer: He wandered for seven years, then sat under a peepal tree vowing not to move until enlightenment came; after seven days he was enlightened, renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree, and became the Buddha - the Awakened or the Enlightened.
Check: Seven years of searching, seven days under the tree - keep the two sevens distinct.
Watch for this: Do not place the enlightenment during the wandering - the account fixes it after the vow under the peepal tree.
Now try it yourself
Why is Benares significant in this chapter?
Check your answer
The Buddha preached his first sermon at Benares, described as the most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges - and that sermon, preserved in the chapter, holds his wisdom about grief and death.
The place gives the chapter its title and its authority.
Unpack the impossible condition
Choose the method: The search is the cure.
EZT practice question
Why does the Buddha ask for mustard-seed from a house where no one has died?
Show the worked solution
- Not because such a house exists - every house has its dead.
- The search itself is the cure: going door to door, Kisa Gotami hears the same answer everywhere - every family has lost someone beloved.
- She discovers on her own that death is common to all, which breaks the selfishness of her grief as no direct sermon could.
Answer: Not because such a house exists, but because the search itself is the cure: going door to door, Kisa Gotami hears the same answer everywhere - every family has lost someone beloved - and discovers on her own that death is common to all, which breaks the selfishness of her grief as no direct sermon could.
Check: The medicine is the walking, not the seed - state that the condition was designed to be impossible.
Watch for this: Do not treat the mustard-seed as a real remedy - the chapter shows the errand itself doing the healing.
Now try it yourself
What does Kisa Gotami ask her neighbours for, and what do they say?
Check your answer
Medicine for her dead child; they say she has lost her senses - the boy is dead.
Her request measures her grief: she asks for what cannot exist.
Quote the doorsteps
Choose the method: Every house has its dead.
EZT practice question
What do the people answer when Kisa Gotami asks whether anyone has died in their family?
Show the worked solution
- Everyone is willing to give mustard-seed.
- But asked whether anyone has died in the house, they answer: 'Alas! the living are few, but the dead are many.'
- 'Do not remind us of our deepest grief' - there is no house but some beloved one has died in it.
Answer: 'Alas! the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief' - there is no house but some beloved one has died in it, though everyone is willing to give the mustard-seed itself.
Check: The quoted line is the chapter's pivot - memorize it with its context of open doors and shut hopes.
Watch for this: Do not say the neighbours refuse her - they offer the seed freely; it is the condition that fails everywhere.
Now try it yourself
What does Kisa Gotami understand while watching the lights of the city?
Check your answer
Watching the lights flicker up and be extinguished, she sees that men's lives flicker up and are extinguished the same way - 'How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all.'
The city's lights give her grief an image it can rest in.
Hold the two comparisons
Choose the method: Fruit falls, pots break.
EZT practice question
What two comparisons does the Buddha use for the fragility of life?
Show the worked solution
- As ripe fruits are early in danger of falling.
- And as all earthen vessels made by the potter end in being broken.
- So mortals, once born, are always in danger of death - young and adult, fools and wise alike, and a father cannot save his son.
Answer: Ripe fruits are early in danger of falling, and all earthen vessels made by the potter end in being broken - so mortals, once born, are always in danger of death; young and adult, fools and wise, all fall into its power, and a father cannot save his son.
Check: Both images come from ordinary life - ripeness and clay - which is why the teaching lands on everyone.
Watch for this: Do not drop the universalising lines - the comparisons lead to 'all fall into its power', not to exceptions.
Now try it yourself
Why, according to the sermon, do the wise not grieve?
Check your answer
Because they know the terms of the world - it is afflicted with death and decay, and mortals are carried off one by one like an ox led to the slaughter while relatives look on lamenting.
Knowing the terms of the world replaces protest with understanding.
Draw out the arrow
Choose the method: Grief doubles the wound.
EZT practice question
What is the 'arrow' the Buddha speaks of, and what happens to the one who draws it out?
Show the worked solution
- The arrow is lamentation, complaint and grief - the sorrow a mourner drives into himself.
- Weeping brings no peace of mind; it makes the pain greater and the body sick and pale, and the dead are not saved by lamentation.
- The one who draws out the arrow becomes composed, obtains peace of mind, overcomes all sorrow, becomes free from sorrow, and is blessed.
Answer: The arrow is lamentation, complaint and grief - the sorrow a mourner drives into himself. The one who draws it out becomes composed, obtains peace of mind, overcomes all sorrow, becomes free from sorrow, and is blessed.
Check: The arrow image makes grief a second, self-inflicted injury on top of the loss itself.
Watch for this: Do not read the teaching as 'do not feel' - the sermon targets lamentation, complaint and grief that multiply pain, not love for the dead.
Now try it yourself
Why does grieving fail to bring peace, according to the sermon?
Check your answer
Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; on the contrary, the pain grows greater and the body sick and pale - yet the dead are not saved by lamentation.
The sermon argues from consequences: grieving hurts the living and cannot help the dead.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The textbook's dates for Gautama Buddha?
Show answer and reason
563 B.C. to 483 B.C., as the textbook dates him.
Born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in northern India.
2. The four sights?
Show answer and reason
A sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession, and a monk begging for alms.
Seen at about twenty-five while out hunting.
3. The Buddha's condition for the mustard-seed?
Show answer and reason
It must come from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend.
No such house exists - the search itself is the cure.
4. The 'arrow' of the sermon?
Show answer and reason
Lamentation, complaint and grief.
Drawing it out brings composure, peace and freedom from sorrow.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Recite the neighbours' answer about the living and the dead.
- Give the sermon's two comparisons for the fragility of life.
- Explain in one sentence why the Buddha sets an impossible errand.
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Questions about this practice page
- What is The Sermon at Benares about?
- It preserves the Buddha's first sermon - preached at Benares on the Ganges - through the story of Kisa Gotami, a mother whose only son has died, whose search for an impossible medicine teaches her that death is common to all.
- Who was the Buddha before his enlightenment, in the textbook's account?
- Prince Siddhartha Gautama of northern India (dated 563 B.C. to 483 B.C.): schooled in the scriptures from twelve, married to a princess, father of a son, and shielded from suffering until, at about twenty-five, he saw a sick man, an aged man, a funeral and a begging monk, and left to seek enlightenment.
- Why could no one give Kisa Gotami the mustard-seed she needed?
- Because the Buddha's condition was that it come from a house where no one had lost a child, husband, parent or friend - and there was no house without its dead: 'the living are few, but the dead are many.'
- What does Kisa Gotami mean when she calls herself selfish in her grief?
- She realises she had been grieving as if death were hers alone, when every family she visited had lost someone beloved; death is common to all, and only surrendering selfishness opens the path out of the valley of desolation.
- What is the theme of The Sermon at Benares?
- Mortality is universal and unavoidable - ripe fruits fall, earthen vessels break - so peace of mind comes not from weeping, which only increases pain, but from drawing out the arrow of lamentation, complaint and grief.