Swami Vivekananda believed that you cannot preach spiritual truths or give religious lectures to someone suffering from extreme hunger. For a starving person, food is their immediate religion.
Now, these could be thought of as the first two layers in Maslow’s hierarchy, roughly speaking.
But, do we not have other hungers?
Hunger for love and belonging.
Hunger for esteem
(both amour de soi and amour propre that Rousseau talked about).
Hunger for self-actualization.
Then, later on in his life, Malsow added three more “needs” or “motivators” to his hierarchy:
Hunger for cognitive needs.
Hunger for aesthetic needs.
Hunger for self-transcendence.
Now, while one can preach spiritual truths or give religious lectures to someone who has satisfied the first two layers in Maslow’s hierarchy, those very lectures are meant to help you understand and transcend the other hungers listed above that inform the other layers in Maslow’s hierarchy.
Know Thyself 