The sun, verily, is Prāṇa; the moon is Rayi. All that has form and all that is formless is Rayi. Therefore form itself is Rayi.

The cosmic identification is established: Āditya (the sun) is Prāṇa — the principle of life, consciousness, the light that knows. Soma (the moon) is Rayi — matter, nutrition, that which is known.

This solar-lunar duality is fundamental in yoga. In haṭha yoga, the sun represents the right energy channel (piṅgalā nāḍī, heat, masculine activity), and the moon the left (iḍā nāḍī, coolness, feminine receptivity). The union of both in the suṣumnā nāḍī (the central channel) is the goal of practice.

The affirmation mūrtireva rayiḥ — “form itself is Rayi” — is crucial. All that is manifested, all that has form (mūrta) or even potential for form (amūrta), belongs to the realm of matter, of food. This includes not only the physical body, but also the subtle and causal bodies.

Prāṇa remains transcendent to form, like the sun that illuminates but is not the illuminated scene. The yogī must remember: we are consciousness (prāṇa) that temporarily inhabits form (rayi), not forms that possess consciousness.