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Verse 165: The Story of Culakala Upasaka

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (165) of this book,
with reference to Culakala, a lay disciple.

Culakala , a lay disciple, observed the Uposatha precepts on a certain observance day day and
spent the night at the Jetavana monastery, listening to religious discourses all through the night.
Early in the morning, as he was washing his face at the pond near the monastery, some
thieves dropped a bundle near him. The owners seeing him with the stolen property took him
for a thief and beat him hard. Fortunately some slave girls, who had come to fetch water
testified that they knew him and that he was not the thief. So Culakala was let off.

When the Buddha was told about it, he said to Culakala, "You have been let off not only
because the slave girls said that you were not the thief, but also because you did not steal
and was therefore innocent. Those who do evil go to niraya, but those who do good are
reborn in the deva worlds or else realize Nibbana."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 165: By oneself indeed is evil done and by oneself is one defiled; by oneself is evil not done
and by oneself is one purified. Purity and impurity depend entirely on oneself;
no one can purify another.

At the end of the discourse Culakala the lay disciple attained Sotapatti Fruition.

Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.,
Burma Pitaka Association, Rangoon, Burma 1986.