When evil kamma’s immature
the fool thinks it is honeyed,
but when the evil has matured
then to the fool comes dukkha.
Explanation: When a sinful act is being done, the ignorant person enjoys it as if it were honey. But the suffering comes when it begins to yield its evil results.
The Story of Nun Uppalavanna (Verse 69)
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse, with reference to Nun Uppalavanna.
Once there was a young daughter of a rich man in Savatthi. Because she was so beautiful, with looks so tender and sweet, like a blue lotus flower, she was called “Uppalavanna”, the blue lotus. The fame of her beauty spread far and wide and there were many suitors: princes, rich men and many others. Thereupon, the merchant, her father, thought to himself, I shall not be able to satisfy the wishes of all, but I must find some way out of the difficulty. Now she was in her last existence before attaining Nibbana and therefore her father’s words were, to her, like oil a hundred times refined sprinkled on her head. Therefore she replied, “Dear father, I’ll become a nun.” So he prepared rich gifts in her honour, and conducted her to the community of nuns where she was admitted.
One day, her turn came to unlock and lock the hall of compassion. After she had lighted the lamp and swept the hall, her attention was attracted to the flame of the lamp. She concentrated on the flame. Her attention on the element of fire, she entered into a state of trance. She attained arahat-ship.
Some time later, she moved to the Dark Forest (Andha-vana) and lived in solitude. While Nun Uppalavanna was out on her alms-round, Nanda, the son of her uncle, came to her monastery and hid himself underneath her sofa. Nanda had fallen in love with Uppalavanna before she became a nun; his intention obviously was to take her by force.
On her return Nun Uppalavanna entered the hut, closed the door, and sat down on the bed, unable to see in the dark because she had just come in out of the sunlight. Hardly had she seated herself on the bed when the youth crawled out from under the sofa and climbed on top. The nun cried out, ‘Fool, do not ruin me!” But the youth overcame her resistance, worked out his will over her, and went his way. As if unable to endure his wickedness, the great earth burst asunder, and he was swallowed up and reborn in the great Hell of Avici.
The nun told the other nuns what had happened, and the nuns told the monks, and the monks told the Buddha. Having heard this, the Buddha addressed the monks as follows, “Monks, the simpleton, whoever he may be, whether monk or nun, or lay disciple male or female, who commits an act of sin, acts with as much joy and happiness, with as much pleasure and delight, as though he were eating honey or sugar or some other sweet-tasting substance” Then he said, “Monks, they that have rid themselves of the corruptions, neither like the pleasures of love nor gratify their passions. For, even as a drop of water which has fallen upon a lotus-leaf does not cling thereto or remain thereon, but crawls over and falls off, precisely so love does not cling to the heart of one who has rid himself of the corruptions.