"Prana-maya means you are going to do something for others. Knowledge above sensual, but without knowledge of the next life. All your '-isms' come into this. Moral codes, political sciences, economics, justice, others’ sense gratification, all that comes into here. Feeding people, clothing people, medicine for people. What you are considering good for your senses, body and mind, but for others. So this knowledge doesn’t go, you don’t understand the next life, you don’t necessarily understand the nature. There is a touch of it because it is in-between religion, mano-maya and anna-maya, so there is a little bit of element that you understand that this person is hungry, there is a need. But really what is hunger, why is there a need for interacting on that way - that is not there. Because today you feed them and tomorrow you are distracted by something and don’t feed them. So that is the problem with prana-maya, it is an extension of anna-maya and therefore it comes back to yourself. 'I will engage in prana-maya as long as I am into it.' But religion means whether I want to do it or not I have to do it. 'It is hot outside, I don’t like to cook,' from anna-maya you wouldn’t do it. But from the platform of religion, 'It is my duty to cook and therefore I am cooking, even though I necessarily I don’t want to cook.' Therefore it will create stability. As soon as you go into the senses, there is no stability. As long as it is dealing with the actual inherent nature, the nature never changes, therefore dealing on that platform there will be stability."
- 23rd Sep 2008, Philosophical Definitions lecture, Bhaktivedanta Academy, Sridham Mayapur
