In plain words
He does not go as far as the prāṇamaya. How then can Vijñāna be attained? That is just why Ajñāna comes to him. When Ajñāna enters, Ānanda moves far away. Sorrow begins. Every man in this world journeys only as far as the annamaya and the manomaya. He wants food; Manas must be content. How is Manas to be content? Surely we must understand the principle of prāṇa to some extent! What is this prāṇa? This prāṇa is the deity of life. That is why, in temples, they speak of prāṇapratiṣṭhā. That is, without the life principle, what can Manas do?
Ānanda is to be had nowhere but in divinity
Once, Varuṇa's son came and prayed, ‘Father! I want Ātmajñāna.’ ‘My son! Find out what is chief in life, what is life's true goal, and come back; I will surely teach you Jñāna,’ he said. ‘Go alone into the forest for some days and do tapas,’ he said. He went. He sat in the forest. He inquired into what matters most in life. He thought it out as far as his strength allowed, poor boy. The essence of my parents' food is the cause of my life coming to be, of this body of mine. So food is what matters for my birth. To build up this body, food is what is needed. If it is not given food, it perishes. So he concluded that food is the cause of all creation, sustenance and dissolution. He came to his father. ‘Father! Food is Brahman,’ he said. ‘My son! That is good, but it is not right,’ he said. ‘I set food before you. If you have no mind to eat, what use is the food? You cannot even tell whether this is food or earth! Without Manas, how would you know that this is food? Are you eating food, or eating earth? So, for this, Manas is the chief thing.’ He told him to go and find out again. Very well: he decided that Manas was what mattered. The father said that was not it.