Dear Sravna,
Dear Shri Mssg,
The effect of maya is to produce an alternate reality being the physical-mental reality. This reality is experienced as a disconnected reality compared to the totally connected experience of the spiritual reality.
How are you sure maya produces alternate reality? Have you ever experienced it as disconnected reality? Wish you spoke of your personal experiences first. Otherwise, most of what follows will not become relatable.
When something is fully connected like nirguna brahman, the effect of maya is not perceived because maya cannot produce a disconnected effect on a fully connected reality. So even though maya is one with nirguna brahman, it cannot produce any illusion in nirguna brahman.
You have an interesting take on this, a unique perspective which most advaitins do not speak or write about. Guess this is your own approach. Nice to know. Would like to know -- how would you know that nirguna is fully connected reality? What is reality in such case?
So, you are accepting that maya remain unremoved from nirguna brahman. But you say it cannot produce illusion in nirguna brahman. Can you please explain first, why should maya be considered illusion? Also, request you to touch on this -- In advaita, how is the illusion removed?
If you say maya produces a disconnected effect, yet remains unremoved from nirguna brahman, don't you think nirguna brahman itself is a disconnected concept?
A concept that asks you to believe the whole world is an illusion (because maya cannot be removed from nirguna brahman)?
If the whole world is an illusion, why should maya be removed / overcome, at all?
Nirguna brahman being projected as saguna brahman and maya , the illusory power of maya is used by saguna brahman to produce the illusory physical-mental reality
Even though maya is creativity it creates a lower reality from a higher reality and hence need to be overcome to experience the blissful higher reality. This is a natural process because physical-mental reality is an illusion and illusion does not last long.
If maya creates a lower reality, then why does it remain unremoved from your concept of nirguna brahman? Moreover, you say higher reality is blissful? Is it? Does not the brain shut down its sensory abilities temporarily, even normally during meditative practices for anyone?
This part (of lower and higher reality) is better explained by buddhist monks. Also also by Iskcon monks. Except that they take 2 different takes. Iskcon believes in surrendering to the lord / fate (which is fatalism). Buddhism tried to manage dukkha without necessarily surrendering to fate / lord. By doing so, they came up with several concepts and explanations, one of which is assigning dukkha to avidya. Later, this view helped create a defined concept of reincarnation / rebirth; which became deeply embedded in some pancharatra compositions; and became normal place in puranic stories.
Indeed, when avidya is removed that no one really dies, but comes back again, it leads to mental strength. However, nirguna brahman addresses none of this. It believes in moksham; from which there is no return.
Will be worthwhile to keep in mind, you can have rebirth, only when brahman is saguna. Also, only when brahman is saguna, maya can remain unremoved, in the concept you state above. In effect, what you are describing is actually saguna brahman.
To address rebirth versus moksham part, Shankara says nobody can attain nirguna brahman. Nobody can become master of the universe (which is the main take away from Shankara's bhasya on brahmasutra also). Which means, nobody can remove strength from a cyclone. This also means, nirguna is not nirguna at all.
Due to such inconsistencies, we may have to take some history into account. Shankara's nirguna brahman is a philosophical concept that came about in times when there was competition with Buddhists. We shall not go into that part. It would suffice to say, nirguna brahman is incomplete.
Yet, all gurus of this age (including even ramana maharishi to current day jaggi vasudev, ravi shankar, nityananda, etc) are all advaitins. As for current day gurus, our public likes verbal jugglery and wisecracks more; instead of reading into experiences of ancient seers, to understand their representations. Hardly does anyone bother to read up on buddhism or jainism. We are indoctrinated into thinking vedas are the beginning and end of all knowledge. Sadly, most people who read up buddhism do so only to find loopholes, to contradict it because they think they should do so (since their birth identity creates such attachment effect. Subconsciously they seek to put vedas /vedanta above everything else because they think it belongs to them. When such attachment exists, how is it possible to understand reality at all? In effect, how is possible to realize nirguna or any brahman at all? We too end up with jugglery of words, to buttress our positions, isn't it?).
Anyways, hope you realize what you have been describing all along, across so many threads, is saguna brahman. Maya can be resolved only in saguna brahman; if you are going to take the vedic/vedanta view.
I will talk about my experiences in overcoming maya soon.
Please write in about this first. How did you overcome maya? How did you do it? What were the results / effects?
Thanks.