Pv 36 Ambasakkara Petavatthu - Earth-bound Deva, Why Do You Have No Clothes to Wear?

In the time of the Buddha,
there was an earth-bound deva with a radiant appearance and great supernatural power,
yet he stood naked, suffering from deep shame.

People were puzzled—
if he was a deity of the earth,
why did he have no clothes to wear?
If he possessed majesty and psychic power,
why did he still have to endure such painful results?

It turns out that
none of this was accidental.
All of it was the ripening of actions done in the past.

This story begins
with a man impaled on a stake, hovering on the brink of death,
and unfolds into a chain of causes and conditions
concerning kamma, generosity, the dedication of merit, repentance, and the transformation of destiny.

A king witnessed with his own eyes
the results of wholesome and unwholesome actions,
and this experience changed the course of his life.

The Buddha teaches us:
kamma does not become light simply because it was done “as a joke”;
yet unwholesome kamma is not forever unchangeable.

By steadily accumulating wholesome actions,
one can weaken painful results—
and even bring them to an end.