How can the knower know his self or the I in him when he says I am conscious . Consciousness cannot exist without life but life can linger in the body without consciousness being active in the vegetative state of coma. Spirit exercises complete control over consciousness by providing it with light of effulgence. In sleep, swoon, anaesthesia and coma, spirit makes the light of consciousness inactive by dimming or switching off its light. In yoga, a conscious attempt is made to focus the light of consciousness on the spirit within to enlarge or brighten consciousness to intuit the higher realities of soul and spirit.
Awareness is like effulgence and the source of awareness is the light of consciousness.
Study of consciousness in isolation is, therefore, a psychological impossibility. Outward directed senses, mind and intellect cannot be of any help in understanding the subjective consciousness nor can its existence be dismissed as unknowable or non-existent. Worldly people dominated by their animal instincts and physical body remain satisfied with the knowledge acquired through the five senses of perception and do not venture to find out what stands behind these senses that activates the mind and intellect.