The manifestation of consciousness is in part autonomous and in part not so. It may be referred to as subconscious. There is inner force driving a being into activity but the activity is largely mijndless, without clarity.
Sanskrit word for this attribaute is rajas which means activity characterized by emotion demanding immediate gratification, mist, clouds and lack of clarity. Rajas is marked by insatiable desires, craving, passion, attachments and ambitions that keeps all embodied being running around in mindless activity in pursuit of things they like.
A pwrson with this attribue is with lofty and insatiable ambitions without the required capability to deserve the desired outcome. The person keeps working with limited success resulting in the perceptions of never ending gaps between their ground reality and the imagined goals.
This attribute applies only to the animate when activity is the result of sensations and feelings which do not lend themselves to conscious thought. Although we are aware of them, we are not necessarily in charge of them. In other words, they control us rather than us controlling them. Examples are our inbuilt fears, aversions, cravings and sense of helplessness. This attribute defines our life of activity run primarily by the immediacy of fast track emotions rather than considered volition.
This attribute results when the mind, identifying primarily with its subconscious state, keeps the individual engaged in mindless activity without clarity of thought.
This is what the Bhagvad gita says about it:
“Greed and constant activity
Excessive projects, cravings,
Restlessness: these arise
when rajas is the ruling trait.”
This is the defining attribute of human condition. It keeps us in the proverbail "fight or flight" mode.