(Prabhupada's lecture - Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.16.22 - Hawaii, January 18, 1974)
What is this māyā? Why this māyā? That is also explained. What is that? Yayā sammohito jīva: "These conditioned souls, they're bewildered by māyā, illusion." That is māyā. Yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam: [SB 1.7.5] "Being bewildered by this māyā, this soul, who is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, or God, he's thinking that 'I am a material product. I am made of these material things.' " Just like the so-called rascal scientists, they'll never accept that within this body there is the soul because they're always thinking there is no such thing as soul. Only the material, that's all. This is illusion. They cannot explain how this body is moving, why the dead body does not move, what is the difference, what is the thing that is missing. These rascals will not understand.
Even there is instruction by higher authorities that within this body there is the soul... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam [Bg. 2.13]. Dehino 'smin dehe, in this body, dehī. The dehī... Dehī means the possessor, the owner of the body. It is said clearly, and we can understand that when I meditate upon my body, actually what I am. So if one is deep thinker, he'll immediately understand that "I am not this body." Take, for example, study on this finger; and if you think, "I am this finger"? No, you'll come to the conclusion, "It is my finger." Any part of your body, you study; you'll never agree that "I am this." It is "I am in possession of this." We say also, "My body, my finger, my head, my hand." And where is that "I"? You are simply thinking, "My, my, my, my," but where is that "I"? But they have no brain. And still, they're passing on as great philosopher, great scientist, and getting Nobel Prize.