While residing at the Jetavana Monastery in Savatthi, the Buddha spoke these verses with reference to Monk Nanda, his cousin. When Venerable Kaludayi felt it was the proper time for the Buddha to visit his father, he conducted the Buddha and a retinue of Arahats to Kapilapura.

There, the Buddha related the Vessantara Jataka to his kinsfolk, and on the following day, while begging for alms, established his father in the fruit of conversion, and Maha Pajapati and his father further along the path.

The next day, during the ceremonies for Prince Nanda's sprinkling, house-warming, and marriage, the Buddha entered the house for alms, placed his bowl in Nanda's hands, wished him good luck, and rose to leave without taking back the bowl.

Out of reverence, Nanda did not dare ask him to take it, thinking the Buddha would take it at the head of the stairs, then at the foot, then in the palace court, but the Buddha never did.

Desiring to return to his bride but too reverent to refuse, Nanda kept following the Buddha, thinking, "He will take his bowl here, or there."

Meanwhile, word reached his bride Janapada-Kalyani that the Buddha had taken Nanda away. With her hair half-combed and tears streaming down her face, she ran after him, crying, "Noble sir, please return immediately."

Her words shook Nanda's heart, but the Buddha led him to the Monastery and asked if he would like to become a monk. So great was Nanda's reverence that he agreed, and was ordained on the third day after the Buddha's arrival.

Later, while at Jetavana, Venerable Nanda grew discontented and confided to the monks that he could no longer endure the religious life and intended to return to lay life.

When the Buddha heard of this, he asked Nanda directly, and Nanda admitted that he kept remembering Janapada-Kalyani's parting words.

The Buddha then took Nanda by the arm and, by his power, led him to the World of the Thirty-three gods. On the way, he showed Nanda a burnt monkey, its ears, nose, and tail lost in a fire, seated on a burnt stump.

In the celestial world, he showed him five hundred pink-footed nymphs attending Sakka, and asked Nanda which was more beautiful, his wife or the nymphs. Nanda replied that his wife was as inferior to the nymphs as the mutilated monkey was to her.

The Buddha promised Nanda he would win those five hundred nymphs if he continued the religious life, and Nanda, delighted, agreed to persevere.

Though his fellow monks despised him for striving after celestial nymphs, Nanda lived in solitude, heedful and resolute, and before long attained Arahatship, becoming one more elder numbered among the Arahats.

That night, Nanda approached the Buddha and released him from the promise of the nymphs. The Buddha replied that he had already known, through his own mind, that Nanda's mind had changed.

The other monks, hearing that Nanda no longer spoke of returning to lay life, reported this change to the Buddha.