TalentJR

The Sermon at Benares – Class 10 English Chapter 8 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 10EnglishChapter 8NCERT book: First Flight - English Class 10

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 8 of the NCERT Class 10 English book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

🎧 Listen to the content

Chapter 8: The Sermon at Benares (with poem: For Anne Gregory)

Overview

This chapter brings together two very different reflections on life. "The Sermon at Benares" tells how the Buddha helped a grieving mother, Kisa Gotami, understand that death is common to all (source: Betty Renshaw, Values and Voices: A College Reader, 1975). "For Anne Gregory" by W. B. Yeats is a playful conversation asking whether anyone can be loved "for yourself alone".

The Sermon at Benares (prose)

The Buddha's life (introduction). Gautama Buddha (563 B.C. – 483 B.C.) was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in northern India. At twelve he was sent away to study the Hindu sacred scriptures; four years later he returned, married a princess, and they had a son. At about twenty-five, while out hunting, he saw a sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession and a monk begging for alms. Deeply moved, he went out to seek enlightenment. After wandering for seven years, he sat under a peepal tree; enlightened after seven days, he renamed it the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom) and became the Buddha — "the Awakened or the Enlightened". He preached his first sermon at Benares, "most holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges".

Kisa Gotami's grief. Kisa Gotami's only son died. Carrying the dead child, she begged her neighbours for medicine; they said she had lost her senses. A man sent her to Sakyamuni, the Buddha.

The mustard-seed test. The Buddha asked for a handful of mustard-seed — but it had to come "from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend." People gladly offered seed, but every family had lost someone: "Alas! the living are few, but the dead are many." There was no house without a death.

Her realisation. Weary, she sat by the wayside watching the city lights "flicker up and … be extinguished again", and saw that human lives are the same. She thought: "How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all; yet in this valley of desolation there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness."

The sermon. The Buddha taught:

"The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain."
  • No one who is born can avoid dying — "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."
  • Young and old, fools and wise — "all are subject to death"; a father cannot save his son.
  • Weeping and grieving bring no peace; they only increase pain. "He who seeks peace should draw out the arrow of lamentation, and complaint, and grief." One who has become composed obtains peace of mind.

    • How the Buddha taught: he did not argue; he let her discover the truth through experience — a practical lesson rather than a lecture.

    Themes: the universality of death; grief and selfishness; wisdom through experience; peace through acceptance.

    For Anne Gregory (poem) — W. B. Yeats

    A conversation between a young man and a young woman (Anne Gregory):

  • Young man: No young man, "thrown into despair / By those great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear", will love you "for yourself alone / And not your yellow hair."
  • Young woman: She can get a hair-dye — "Brown, or black, or carrot" — so that young men love her for herself.
  • Young man: An "old religious man" found a text proving that only God could love you "for yourself alone / And not your yellow hair."

    • Imagery: "honey-coloured ramparts" — her golden hair, falling like the high walls of a fort around her ears.

    Refrain: "for yourself alone / And not your yellow hair" ends every stanza.

    Message: people are drawn by outer beauty; unconditional love for the inner self is rare — perhaps only divine.

    About the poet: William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), Irish nationalist, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

    Word Power

  • sermon — a religious or moral talk (प्रवचन)
  • enlightenment — a state of high spiritual knowledge (ज्ञानोदय)
  • chanced upon — came across by chance (संयोग से मिलना)
  • inscrutable — that which cannot be understood (रहस्यमय)
  • repaired (to) — went to (stylistic use) (के पास गई)
  • procure — obtain, get (प्राप्त करना)
  • desolation — deep sorrow, emptiness (वीरानी)
  • mortals — those bound to die (नश्वर प्राणी)
  • lamentation — expression of sorrow (विलाप)
  • afflicted with — affected by suffering (पीड़ित)
  • composed — calm (शांत)
  • kinsmen — relatives (संबंधी)
  • ramparts — high, wide walls around a fort (प्राचीर)
  • despair — loss of hope (निराशा)

    • Board Exam Focus

  • What did Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she had not understood the first time? — Outline: first she wanted medicine to revive her son → the second time, searching for mustard-seed, she found death in every house → realised death is common to all and her grief was selfish → exactly what the Buddha wanted her to learn.
  • How did the Buddha change her understanding? — Outline: gave an impossible task instead of a lecture → she learned from direct experience → the city lights became a symbol of life's brevity.
  • "For Anne Gregory" — what is the argument about? — Outline: whether a person can be loved for inner self rather than looks → woman proposes hair-dye → man says only God loves unconditionally.

    • Grammar & Language Focus

  • Old-fashioned expressions (from the exercise) and modern equivalents: give thee medicine for thy child → give you medicine for your child; Pray tell me → please tell me; Kisa repaired to the Buddha → Kisa went to the Buddha; kinsmen → relatives; Mark! → look / pay attention.
  • Semicolons and dashes join two clauses when no connecting word fits. The book's example — "For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are living beings" — can be broken into three simple sentences; compare the rhythm.

    • Common Mistakes

  • Saying the Buddha refused to help — he helped by setting a task that taught her.
  • Thinking Kisa Gotami failed to collect any seed because people refused — people offered seed, but no house was free of death.
  • Mixing up ages/dates: enlightenment came after seven years of wandering and seven days under the tree.
  • Calling the young woman's hair black — it is yellow (golden); she offers to dye it brown, black or carrot.
  • Missing that the "old religious man" provides the poem's final twist: only God loves for oneself alone.

    • 💡 Key Learning Points

    • ✓Recall the key events of the Buddha's life leading to his first sermon at Benares.
    • ✓Explain how the mustard-seed task led Kisa Gotami to understand that death is universal.
    • ✓Interpret the Buddha's images of ripe fruit, earthen vessels and the 'arrow of lamentation'.
    • ✓Rephrase old-fashioned expressions in modern English and use semicolons/dashes to join clauses.
    • ✓Analyse the argument, imagery and refrain in Yeats's 'For Anne Gregory'.

    👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

    • →Begin with the book's pre-reading question: how is a sermon different from a lecture?
    • →Dramatise Kisa Gotami's house-to-house search so students feel the repeated answer 'the living are few, but the dead are many'.
    • →Use the city-lights image as a visual metaphor; ask students to draw or describe it.
    • →Do the rephrasing exercise in pairs, then compare the rhythm of the semicolon sentence with three simple sentences.
    • →Compare the sermon with the two modern texts on grief in the chapter and discuss whether the Buddha's ideas still help.
    • →Read 'For Anne Gregory' as a dialogue with two voices; discuss loving people for looks versus inner qualities.
    • →Share the Tagore lines from the chapter ('Say not in grief that she is no more…') to close sensitively.

    📋 Assessment Questions

    1. What did Kisa Gotami ask for the first time and the second time? Did she get it?
    2. How did the Buddha change Kisa Gotami's understanding?
    3. Do you agree she was being 'selfish in her grief'? Explain.
    4. What does the young woman propose to do with her hair, and why?
    5. What is the message of 'For Anne Gregory'?

    Ask the AI tutor about Class 10 English Chapter 8

    Get question answers, important questions, a quick MCQ quiz or a simple explanation of “The Sermon at Benares”. Free — sign in with Google.

    How the AI tutor works →

    👩‍🏫 Class 10 English classes near you — online or at home

    Prefer a real teacher? TalentJR teachers take live online classes anywhere in India and visit homes in selected cities. Tell us what you need and our team will call you with timings and fees.

    • Live online classesSmall groups or 1:1 with a teacher, from home, any city.
    • Teacher at homeA TalentJR teacher visits your home (selected cities).
    • At a centreClasses at a TalentJR partner centre near you, where available.

    Keep learning

    All chapters in First Flight - English Class 10

    1. 1. A Letter to God
    2. 2. Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
    3. 3. Two Stories about Flying
    4. 4. From the Diary of Anne Frank
    5. 5. Glimpses of India
    6. 6. Mijbil the Otter
    7. 7. Madam Rides the Bus
    8. 8. The Sermon at Benares
    9. 9. The Proposal