Attunement and the Guru

In the last chapter of the Discipleship Course at www.anandaonlineclasses.org, there's some really good references to what attunement to the Guru and the Divine Ray is all about.

As I interpret the writing, the idea here, is that God sends many Divine Ray's through the Universe.  As people find a ray they are called to, and they attune to the ray - they will grow in the attributes of that Divine Ray.  They will gain Love, Kindness, Inner Radiance, Peace, etc.

Regarding attunement itself, there are different levels - which have a different return to us.  I'll quote the material here:

"-For one, that those who serve this work selflessly are those also who gain the most from

it;

- That those, again, who try to share with others the light they receive gain more,

spiritually, than those who keep it to themselves. (As Paramhansa Yogananda said, “The

instrument is blessed by that which flows through it.”);

- That they gain the most who seek attunement with others more advanced than they

themselves are on the path;

- And that they gain the most, finally, who realize that soul-attunement with this path is

more important even than long hours spent in meditation, without the companion effort to

establish such inner attunement."

An important aspect of the Divine Ray is service.  By service our attunement grows deeper and stronger.  How do we serve?

We serve through becoming transmission stations of the Divine Ray.

What does that mean?
That means, we radiate conscoiusness (of the blessings we have recieved) to all existence (people, plants, animals, the world around us.)

Also - spend time with other people in attunement.  As the chapter states:

For yourself, too, if you want to be more in tune with the ray that is shining through this

work of Self-Realization, seek out those who are already in tune with it. I have seen over

the years that those who sought their attunement with Yogananda, but who didn’t also

recognize the need for personal contact with living instruments of his ray, have not

received nearly as much.

If you doubt, the text says to test this by doing the following:

Those who live in tune with the divine ray will manifest

in their lives increased love, harmony, and joy. More especially, they will radiate those

particular qualities which belong to that ray. But those who work against the ray will

manifest in their lives a growing disharmony, and diminution of love.