Acharya Prashant explains that consciousness is a knot that lies between the physical and the metaphysical. He describes it as a very unique, wonderful, and from a logical perspective, an impossible thing. On one hand, consciousness cannot exist without a physical brain. On the other hand, there is nothing in the physical world that can be assembled to create consciousness. The amazing state of consciousness is that it is definitely related to matter. For instance, when you consume alcohol, which is a chemical, your consciousness is affected. This shows its connection to the physical world. However, if consciousness were purely made of matter, like a machine or a piece of cloth, it would be possible to assemble various materials in a certain way to create a conscious entity, which is not possible. So, consciousness is related to matter but is fundamentally beyond it. When a person dies, their individual consciousness is gone, it ceases to exist. There is no trace of it left. However, if you say that the consciousness in the body can be satisfied with physical things, that is also not true. It is always restless and seeks something more. Human consciousness resides in the body, which is like a cage made of the five elements, but it is not happy there. It seeks something beyond the body for its satisfaction. This is the human condition. This is what a human is, what his life is, and what the purpose of his life is. Consciousness resides in the body but seeks something beyond the body. This is why those who know have given various names to what it seeks, such as peace, liberation, enlightenment, God, or Krishna. Spirituality, therefore, does two things. First, it investigates our identity, dispelling the illusion that we are merely the body. It helps us realize that we are consciousness. Our primary identity is consciousness, not the body. If our identity were the body, we would not call a dead body a 'corpse'; we would still call it a person. We are consciousness, and when consciousness is present, we say a person exists. When consciousness is absent, we say the person is no more. The second task of spirituality is to understand why this consciousness is so restless and what it thirsts for. The investigation of our identity and the solution to our thirst is what spirituality is about. The first question is, 'Who am I?' and after that comes the question, 'Where is my God? Where is my liberation? Where is my end? Where is my peak? Where will I dissolve? Where is my union?'
