Maya — Neither Real Nor Unreal
Maya (illusion/creative power) is the most distinctive and difficult concept in Advaita Vedanta — the power by which the one Brahman appears as the many, and which is neither fully real nor fully unreal.
Maya is the Advaita concept that explains how the one infinite Brahman appears as the multiple finite world without actually being divided. The most technically precise definition: Maya is Mithya — it is neither fully real (Sat) nor fully unreal (Asat). It is real in the sense that it is experienced; it is not real in the sense that it has no ultimate existence independent of Brahman. The classic analogy: a rope in dim light is mistaken for a snake. The snake is neither real (there is no actual snake) nor unreal (the experience of seeing a snake, with genuine fear, is real as an experience). When the rope is recognized, the snake disappears — it neither was real nor was it pure nothingness. Similarly: the world of multiplicity is Maya — genuinely experienced, but without ultimate reality independent of Brahman. When Brahman is recognized, the world is not destroyed but recognized as Brahman itself. Shankara described Maya as 'anirvachaniya' — indescribable, neither real nor unreal — a unique third category.
Maya is anirvachaniya — it cannot be described as either real or unreal.
Philosopher Nelson Goodman's 'Ways of Worldmaking' — arguing that there is no single 'the world' but multiple equally valid frameworks for constructing reality — parallels the Maya doctrine in suggesting that what we ordinarily call 'the world' is a constructed framework rather than pure, unmediated reality.
Brahmasutra Bhashya