A man has served the family with heart and soul throughout the whole life, and when he is old man, if he asks permission from his wife, “My dear wife, now I have served so much. Let me take sannyasa now,” the wife will never give permission. She will say, “What you have done? I have got to do so many things. Your, this son is not yet settled up; this daughter is not yet married. How you can take sannyasa? So you cannot do.” So actually, he is the servant of the wife, but he is thinking, “I am master of the family.” This is called maya.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.3 — 24 February, 1975