CONSTANT CONSCIOUSNESS

Atman/Brahman is consciousness.  At no time is there not consciousness.

However, the word consciousness does not tell us much about it, indeed makes it sound like it is merely a blank slate.  A better word is awareness.  Unlike the word consciousness which is passive, the word awareness is active.  It suggests a paying attention, a noticing.

Vedantists purport that Atman/Brahman witnesses, watches, observes only, that it could not care less about what it is seeing, anymore than it gets involved with it.

Yet an argument could be made that why did Atman/Brahman create existence if it is of no significance?  The myth is that it created existence as sport, play, just to have something to do.

The answer to this the Vedantists have provided.  They say that the purpose of life is for the Atman to awaken into its source the Brahman, that is for the personal aspect of the Brahman to realize where it came from, what it actually is.

This, then, is what consciousness, awareness, is for.  The Atman could not fulfill its destiny of awakening without it.