Within Advaita Vedanta, Maya is understood as the mysterious principle by which the non-dual Brahman appears as a world of multiplicity, change, and separate individuals. It is described as the power that both veils the true nature of Brahman (avarana-shakti) and projects the manifold universe (vikshepa-shakti), much like mistaking a rope for a snake in dim light. Through this veiling, the limitless Self is misidentified with body, mind, and personal history, giving rise to the sense of being a finite jiva. Maya thus accounts for the experience of duality without positing a second, independent reality alongside Brahman.

The tradition characterizes Maya as anirvachaniya—neither fully real nor utterly unreal, but indefinable. It is not a separate substance or entity; rather, it is spoken of as the power (shakti) of Brahman, having no existence apart from that ultimate reality, just as a dream has no existence apart from the dreamer. From the standpoint of everyday experience (vyavaharika-satta), the world produced by Maya has pragmatic validity and cannot simply be dismissed, yet from the absolute standpoint (paramarthika-satta) it is mithya, a dependent or apparent reality that is ultimately sublated in the knowledge of Brahman.

Maya is said to be beginningless in the sense that ignorance has no traceable starting point, yet it is not endless, because it can be dispelled through Self-knowledge (jnana). As long as ignorance (avidya) persists, Maya continues to superimpose false attributes upon Brahman, sustaining the perception of separation and diversity. Through discrimination (viveka), spiritual practice, and direct realization, the underlying identity of Atman and Brahman is recognized, and the binding power of Maya falls away, just as darkness vanishes in the presence of light. The world may still appear, but it no longer deludes or binds the one who knows its status as appearance.

In this way, Maya serves as a profound explanatory principle for both bondage and liberation. It shows how the One can seem to be many without compromising non-duality, and how that seeming many-ness can be seen through. When the veil of Maya is lifted by knowledge, what remains is the direct recognition that only Brahman is ultimately real, and that the true Self has never been other than that.