Question: What is consciousness?
Sri Chinmoy: Consciousness is the connecting link between earth and Heaven. Consciousness connects the cry of the finite with the Smile of the Infinite. Consciousness is the connecting link between earth's aspiring reality and Heaven's smiling Reality. It is the bridge between the reality that is growing and the Reality that eternally is. When we are here on earth, we are growing. When we are in Heaven, we eternally are.
Sri Chinmoy, The significance of a smile, Agni Press, 1977