Worksheet from Nelson Mandela & The Sermons at Benares

Q1. What does Mandela thank the international leaders for?

Q2. What ideals does Mandela set out for the future of South Africa?

Q3. What do the military generals do? How has their attitude changed, and why?

Q4. Why were two national anthems sung?

Q5. What does courage mean to Mandela?

Q6. What “twin obligations” does Mandela mention?

Q7. What did being free mean to Mandela as a boy, and as a student? How does he contrast these “transitory freedoms” with “the basic and honourable freedoms”?

Q8. Why did such a large number of international leaders attend the inauguration? What did it signify the triumph of?

Q9. Would you agree that the “depths of oppression” create “heights of character”? How does Mandela illustrate this? Can you add your own examples to this argument?

Q10. How did Mandela’s understanding of freedom change with age and experience? Q11. How did Mandela’s ‘hunger for freedom’ change his life?

Q12. When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?

Q13. 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?

Q14. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?

Q15. How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief ’?

Q16. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?