The origin of Maya

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): ‘Maya’ and ‘Brahm’ are beginningless for you because the question is coming from you. So, to you these two are beginningless. Why are these two beginningless? Why can’t their origin be known? Because Maya does not comprise of an entity called Maya. Maya is verily the questioner himself. Maya resides in the questionnaire. All questions are Maya. A question implies a lack of knowledge. So, the questionnaire is Maya.

If you can reach the beginning of Maya then you say, “I have reached the beginning of Maya” and here Maya is no more, right? When you reach the beginning of something, is that thing anymore there? No. You have reached the end of that thing, right? If you have reached the end of that thing who is there now still remaining to say, “Oh! I have reached the end of that thing.”

See, you are the one who is trying to trace the origin of Maya, right? So, you trace the origin of Maya and you, let’s assume reach the origin, somehow. And upon managing to reach the origin what do you exclaim? You say, “Oh! I found the beginning of Maya.” So, you found the beginning of Maya and you still remain to say that you have found the beginning of Maya.

If you indeed do still remain to say that the beginning of Maya has been found then what…