What is the relationship between Maya and the Brahman ? Does Maya exist ?
If you accept the existence of mind, you cannot negate Maya. Mind is just another name of Maya. What is Maya in the cosmic level is seen as mind in the individual level. Brahman and Atman are names given to the same Reality at the cosmic and individual level. The intermediaries are Maya and Mind. The illusive objects percieved are the World (Jagat) and Personality (Jiva). Do not be to much distracted by the terms. There is a heavy loss of terms here, especially because we are using English. The same concept here will be named differently elsewhere. Theoretically speaking, it is possible for Brahman to exist without being aware of itself. All concepts and discussion about Brahman are by the mind, which exists only when Brahman is aware of itself. So, there is no way in which the mind can even get an inkling of a state when Brahman is not aware of itself. So such a state is beyond description of the mind.
If you accept the existence of mind, you cannot negate Maya. Mind is just another name of Maya. What is Maya in the cosmic level is seen as mind in the individual level. Brahman and Atman are names given to the same Reality at the cosmic and individual level. The intermediaries are Maya and Mind. The illusive objects percieved are the World (Jagat) and Personality (Jiva). Do not be to much distracted by the terms. There is a heavy loss of terms here, especially because we are using English. The same concept here will be named differently elsewhere. Theoretically speaking, it is possible for Brahman to exist without being aware of itself. All concepts and discussion about Brahman are by the mind, which exists only when Brahman is aware of itself. So, there is no way in which the mind can even get an inkling of a state when Brahman is not aware of itself. So such a state is beyond description of the mind.
