The Magic of The Seven Rays

The Sun! That glorious fiery orb in the sky, the giver of light, of warmth, of life itself! From the beginning of time, the sun has been an object of curiosity, of respect, of fear. It has also been the object of reverence and worship. In many traditions, the sun is considered the supreme Divinity. It is this spiritual aspect of the sun that we shall explore here.

What we will discuss is not something new or strange. We shall simply detail the very intuitive concept that “the Sun gives us life”, and expand that definition of “life”.The first step we shall take is to go beyond the definition of the sun as a physical ball of fire, an extremely hot globe. While this definition remains true, we shall add a spiritual dimension, and say that the sun is a living, enormously powerful, being who is the driving force of our solar system, and whose various blessings allow life to exist in our solar system. For this reason, this divinity, we shall refer to the sun as the “Sun”

So, what are these blessings that flow to us constantly from the sun? Every person, every animal, every plant, every being knows that light and heat come from the sun. After spells of col and dark weather, we run towards some welcome sunshine. But there are also subtle, invisible blessings that come from the Sun. These also flow constantly and are quite specialized even as they cover all walks of life. These streams of blessings are called Rays, and are described as being seven in number:
Will
Love
Intelligence (Dynamic, Creative Intelligence)
Harmony (through conflict)
Concrete Intelligence
Devotion
Ritual (process)

Let us now look at each of these briefly, with examples.

The Ray of Will gives us the strength to demonstrate power and purpose in life. When we show determination to succeed in studies, at work, we are demonstrating Will. When a person shows the courage to fight disease or disability, to conquer humiliation and succeed in business and life, they are demonstrating will. With this blessing, we find the force to achieve personal and professional results.

The Ray of Love is very familiar to us, as the feeling and expression of love is so common. The love we feel and express for friends and family, the love that we have for our pets and the love with which they reciprocate our feelings to us, all these are connected to the Ray of Love. There are higher forms of love too, like the love of the saint for all humanity and all creatures, or the love of the scientist for his/her area, etc. These are also expressions of the Ray of Love.

The Ray of Intelligence is again very visible to us in all our lives, in the form of the vast oceans of knowledge that we touch and use. Mathematics, science and technology, different systems of medicine, all these sophisticated areas are expressions of the Ray of Intelligence. The dynamic, creative side of our lives, by which we adapt to various challenges in life, is connected to this Ray.

The Ray of Harmony (through conflict) gives us the ability to understand and resolve conflicts, to make sense of situations and to come up with solutions. We see this Ray in expression in diplomacy, business negotiations, sports and games, etc. Wherever we see decisions being made, we usually see the blessings of this Ray in action.

The Ray of Concrete Intelligence is very important in today’s age, as it is concerned with details and calculations. We see it in expression when we create and use business spreadsheets, understand clinical trial data, tracking household expenses, etc. It is closely related to the Ray of Intelligence.

The Ray of Devotion drives a lot of our individual and societal behaviour today. Devotion could be a strong belief in a particular religion or religious person, but it could also be to a philosophy or idea. For example, one could be devoted to individual freedom of expression, or to vegetarianism, etc.

The Ray of Ritual (process) is very commonly seen in expression in the world today – it allows us to do things systematically. For example, we interact with our banks, make hotel reservations, book train tickets, shop online or in stores, all in specific, well-defined ways. Every walk of life is filled with princesses. The Ray of Ritual allows us to create and manage such processes.

So, we see that the Rays are very universal and very pervasive, and affect our lives at all levels. They are a fascinating field of study, and have many applications. For example, one can use the Rays to build successful businesses and to improve family relationships, etc. And, please remember, all the Rays emanate from the Sun. One day, let us also talk about more esoteric implications of the rays, at the individual and planetary levels

- Authored by Ramsubramanian Mahadevan