“I love this quote from Tripura Rahasya from the jnana kandam in the chapter Variety of Sages 109-12. The vasanas not inimical to realisation are not weeded out by the best class of Jnanis because they cannot seek new ones to crowd the old out. Therefore the old ones continue until they are exhausted and thus you find among them some highly irritable, some lustful and others pious and dutiful, and so on.” – Seeker
James: I like this quote too but it needs a bit of commentary. Actually jnanis are free so they are free to seek out new vasanas, to not seek out new vasanas or to neither seek nor not seek vasanas because “they” are actually the Self. As long as the body is present, vasanas out-picture but they always appear as impotent objects. I think the “best” class of jnanis, in so far as they are a class, like Ramana, are those who make an effort to purify rajasic and tamasic vasanas for the sake of the teaching, the teacher, and the world.
This comment assumes that moksa is only firm Self knowledge, the fifth stage of sadhana, not tripti, perfect satisfaction, the seventh stage, which is not a stage and which is achieved by nididyasana. After his realization, Ramana spent twenty five years in caves doing nididyasana, before he consented to make himself available to the public, which accounts for his outsized impact on the spiritual world, not his Self realization, which is the same for everyone in so far as there is only one already realized Self and only one way to realize it, which is accomplished by the removal of one’s ignorance of one’s wholeness, by a means of knowledge.
Another way to deal with this question is to ask “unhelpful for whom?” If there is no difference between the jnani and existence shining as blissful consciousness, is anything helpful or unhelpful? From this point of view the question answers itself.
