Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless and sat down at the wayside watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere. And she considered the fate of men, that their lives flicker up and are extinguished again. And she thought to herself: “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.”
1. Why did Kisa become weary and hopeless?
2. What did she do at the end of the day?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘desolation’.
1. Kisa became weary and hopeless because for the whole day she was wandering from house to house trying to get a handful of mustard-seed from a house where no one had ever died.
2. At the end of the day, she sat down on the wayside watching the lights dying out and she noticed the darkness that was slowly enveloping the whole area.
3. Despondency.
