An unconscious person is unaware of himself and the happenings around. Senses, mind, intellect and memory are all linked to this substantive consciousness to create awareness of one s individuality as also the opportunities and threats in the external environment. Senses, mind and intellect are all outward directed to know the physical body and the external world. 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.