"Existence, consciousness and the significance of our conscious being, -a triple enigma confronts us when we look at them to discover their origin, foundations, nature, their innermost secret "Existence itself is the first riddle. ...
    "Consciousness of existence is a second insoluble miracle It is a premier fact and without it being would not know of its own existence. Things might exist, but only as a useless encumbrance of a meaningless space, - consciousness makes being self-aware, gives it a significance. But what then is consciousness? Is it something in the very grain of being or an unstable result or fortuitous accident? To whom does it belong? to the world as a whole? or is it peculiar to individual being? Or has it come from elsewhere into this inanimate and inconscient universe? To what end this entry?
    "The significance of our conscious being in an inconscient material world is the last and worst enigma "The problem of consciousness is the central problem; for it links the other two together and creates their riddle."

Sri Aurobindo
Essays Divine and Human
page 285-86