Page 1 - LN4- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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The Sermon at Benares

                                             Question and Answers



                    Short questions & answers.
                    Q1: What do you know about the early life of Buddha?
                    A:   Gautama Buddha was born in a royal family. His childhood name was
                    Siddhartha. At the age of 12 he was sent away for schooling in Hindu sacred
                    scriptures and four years letter he was married to a princess, Yashodhara.

                    Q2: What did he see when he went out hunting? What did he do then?
                    A:  He saw a sick man, then an aged man, then a funeral procession, and finally
                    a monk begging for alms. These sights moved him so much that he decided to
                    seek in enlightenment about the sorrows he had came across.

                    Q: Where did Buddha preach his first sermon?
                    A: Gautama Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benares, which is
                    regarded as the most holy of the dipping places on the river Ganges.


                    Text book questions and answers
                    Q.01- 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 dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house asking for
                    medicine to bring her son back to life. She did not get it because there is no
                    medicine which can bring a dead man back to life.

                    Q.02- Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the
                    Buddha. What does she ask for, the Second time around? Does she get it?
                    Why not?
                    Ans:- After she speaks with the Buddha, Kisa Goutami again goes from house
                    to house asking for mustard-seed but in vain because there is no house where
                    no one has lost a child, a husband, parent or friend.

                    Q.03-   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 understood the second time that death is the ultimate truth.
                    All creatures that are born must die one day. This is what Buddha wanted her
                    understand.




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