The Sermon at Benares Summary

Class 10 First Flight is a beautiful collection of remarkable prose pieces written by the best authors of all time. One of the best chapters in this book is ‘The Sermon at Benares’. It is written by Betty Renshaw. It is a part of her book named ‘Values and Voices’. In this chapter, she depicted how a royal prince left his family back in the palace to find the truth behind all the sufferings in the world. The Sermon at Benares summary is all about the revelations made by Lord Buddha during his journey. He met people who helped him understand the real truth and achieve enlightenment. His journey of spiritual awakening will be perfectly described in this summary prepared by the experts of Vedantu. 

To understand the context of this chapter, you need to follow the summary and study it line by line. It will help you to find out the right answers to all the questions and score well in the exam.

Class 10 English the Sermon at Benares Summary

Gautama Buddha was one of the greatest saints in the history of the entire world. He was born in the royal family residing in the northern part of India a long time back. His name was Siddhartha Gautama before his enlightenment. The people back then suffered a lot from diseases and miseries. It was his father who knew how sensitive Siddhartha was towards the pain and agony of the people. He decided to shield him from such miseries and sent him to study Hindu scriptures when he was 12. He learned and became more knowledgeable but was unable to quench his thirst related to the miseries and pain in the world outside. He was then married to a beautiful princess. They had a beautiful son. He continued to live this luxurious life for more than 10 years without knowing about the unpleasant truths in the world.

If you read the chapter and follow the summary of The Sermon at Benares, you will find that the day came when Siddhartha realized how much pain has surrounded his world and he was unaware of it. He was outside hunting with his royal guards. On his way, he met a man who was very old. He was very sick and was on the verge of his end. He also saw the arrangement of a funeral. He witnessed a beggar looking for alms in pain. All he felt was a pain but could not find the real meaning behind feeling such pain. This day was the eye-opener to the young prince. He found that he was being shielded from the agony the entire world is facing.

He decided to start his journey to find the truth behind all this pain. He attended salvation one day and found the answers to all his questions. He started spreading this high spiritual knowledge to his disciples and people meeting him on the way. He traversed from one place to the other and reached Benares one day. His path crossed with a lady named Kisa Gotami. She had just lost her son. The grieving mother was suffering from huge pain moving from one house to the other to find medicine to save her son.

She was then told to meet Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha listened to her problem and asked her to bring mustard seeds from a house with no history of deaths. The lady with a new hope started to look for a house where death has not touched once. The more she searched, the more she learned about deaths in the families in different houses. She was in utter despair and returned to Lord Buddha. As per The Sermon at Benares summary Class 10, she realized how selfish she was to find a cure for his son’s death when the entire world is withstanding the same pain. She sat beside a busy road and found the actual reason why Lord Buddha told her to find a house with no history of death. She understood that death is the ultimate truth and we have to embrace it.

According to the summary of The Sermon at Benares, sorrow and grief increase our pain. It becomes painful when we are unable to accept the truth.