One scripture offers the following account of how Upali overcame his lowly birth to become one of the Buddha's disciples. When Shakyamuni was a hermit in an earlier existence, he once asked the palace barber to shave his head, but the barber refused contemptuously because of the hermit's wretched appearance. The barber's nephew, who was an inexperienced novice, condemned his uncle's unkindness and did his best to shave the hermit.

One day, observing workers in his family's fields, he saw how the spade turned up earth teeming with white insects, which were crushed to death in the next instant by blows of the hoe. He observed the farmers whipping groaning oxen forced to pull heavy loads. Through these images, Maha-Kassapa came to understand the transience of life and the great suffering required to support his life of luxury.

Grieved by her plight, Moggallana asked Shakyamuni to save his mother. Shakyamuni replied, "Your power alone cannot atone for her sins. You must make offerings to all the monks and ask them to pray for her. Then their prayers will free your mother from the hell of hungry demons." Moggallana did as instructed, and the merit he obtained by making offerings to all the monks delivered his mother from hell.