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Question
Answer the following question in 80-100 words:
“The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain ….” With this statement of the Buddha, find out the moral value that Kisa Gotami learnt after the death of her child.
Solution
Kisa Gotami was the mother of her only son and was grief-stricken when he died. Initially, she was only thinking about her grief and was, therefore, asking for a medicine that would bring her son back to life. When she met the Buddha, he asked her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no one had died. He did this purposely to make her realize that there was not a single house where no beloved had died and that death is natural. When she went to all the houses the second time, she felt dejected that she could not gather the mustard seeds. Then, when she sat and thought about it, she realized that the fate of men is such that they live and die. Death is common to all. This was what the Buddha had intended her to understand.
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Answer the following question in 80 − 100 words :
Through 'The Sermon at Benares', the Buddha preached that death is inevitable and we need to overcome the suffering and pain that follows.
Based on your reading of the lesson, write how one should cope with the death of a loved one.
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?
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?
Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
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If you had to use the message of the given quote from the Buddha’ssermon (The Sermon at Benares) to help the boy cope with the loss of his ball and what it signifies (The Ball Poem), what would you include in your advice?
Also, evaluate why it might be difficult for him to understand the notion.
"These sights so moved him that he at once went out into the world to seek enlightenment." What were the sights that moved 'him'?
Kisa Gotami admitted that she was being selfish in grief. Do you agree? Why/Why not?
Why did Kisa Gotami become weary and hopeless?
How does Buddha bring about a different perspective in Kisa Gotami's understanding of life?
