The Seven Rays of the Infinite

Sri Aurobindo starts the review of the Knowledge and the Ignorance by reminding us of the sevenfold principles of existence: “In our scrutiny of the seven principles of existence it was found that they are one in their essential and fundamental reality: for if even the matter of the most material universe is nothing but a status of being of Spirit made an object of sense, evisaged by the Spirit’s own consciousness as the stuff of its forms, much more must the life-force that constitutes itself into forms of Matter, and the mind-consciousness that throws itself out as Life, and the Supermind that develops Mind as one of its powers, be nothing but Spirit itself modified in apparent substance and in dynamism of action, not modified in real essence. All are powers of one Power of being and not other than that All-Existence, All-Consciousness, All-Will, All-Delight which is the true truth behind every appearance. And they are not only one in their reality, but also inseparable in the sevenfold variety of their action. They are the seven colours of the light of the divine consciousness, the seven rays of the Infinite, and by them the Spirit has filled in on the canvas of his self-existence conceptually extended, woven of the objective warp of space and the subjective woof of Time, the myriad wonders of his self-creation great, simple, symmetrical in its primal laws and vast framings, infintely curious and intricate in its variety of forms and actions and the complexities of relation and mutual effect of all upon each and each upon all. These are the seven Words of the ancient sages; by them have been created and in the light of their meaning are worked out and hae to be interpreted the developed and developing harmonies of the world we know and the worlds behind of which we have only an indirect knowledge. The Light, the Sound is one; their action is sevenfold.”

This represents then the basis of Knowledge, to recognize the inherent unity and oneness of the entire manifested Universe created from the Spirit and extended both in Time and Space through the levels of Supermind, Mind, Life and Physical Matter.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book 2, Part I, Chapter 7, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, pp. 482-483