An Arahant. Once, when he lay very ill at the Badarikārāma, near Kosambī, some monks, staying at the Ghositārāma, sent one of their number, Dāsaka, with a message to Khemaka, inquiring whether he managed to bear his pains. Dāsaka returned with the reply that he did not; he was sent again to ask if Khemaka had seen the self in the five aggregates; when Dāsaka returned with the answer that he had not, be was sent a third time to ask whether Khemaka was an Arahant. “No,” came the answer, and Dāsaka had to visit him a fourth time with the inquiry, What did Khemaka mean by self? In exasperation Khemaka came himself to Ghositārāma and explained how, even when the Noble Disciple has put away the five lower fetters, there still clings to him a subtle remnant of the “I” conceit. It is said that as a result of the discourse Khemaka himself and sixty others became Arahants (S.iii.126 ff).

The Commentary (SA.ii.230 f) explains that the monks wished to hear Khemaka because they knew his ability, and they also knew that if they showed keenness to learn he would come to them. They did not go to him because his but was small, and they did not actually ask him to come to them because he was ill.