Consciousness very simply means awareness plus the power to act. We can use the terms knowledge and will. The question is whether animals and plants have no knowledge and will? Limited, – yes, but then human knowledge and will are also limited. In fact, one can even go further and say that there is perhaps a kind of knowledge and will embedded within matter as well. We use the word law, but what really are the laws that govern material nature, but a kind of submerged knowledge and will operating mechanically, a sort of mechanical intelligence that operates within the atom. In simple terms, we see the workings of a hidden Intelligence, not apparent in the creature but evident in its workings. If we take a closer, unbiased look we will see this hidden intelligence and power at work in the whole of creation, in the spinning of atoms and the drift of galaxies, in the bloom of flowers and the shock of the stars as if a great spectacular show of knowledge and power is going on in creation, – for what purpose we may ask? For expressing beauty and delight in countless ways through each and every element of creation. This completes the trinity of Sacchidananda, Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, which is considered as the fundamental Reality behind creation.
Consciousness is therefore the fundamental Reality, the Intelligence and Power, Knowledge and Will that has built the creation.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
