[Advaita-l] Is the concept of maya essential to explain advaita?

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms

Just some clarification based on my understanding - not knowing following who wrote what: 
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>If Ishwara is sat, then His shakti (maya) should also be sat. If Ishwara 
is
mithya, how can His shakti be sat? Contrariwise, if maya is sad asad, how
can Ishwara be sat because that would imply a difference between shakti 
and
>shaktiman?

Iswara and his shakti - understood as object out there then it is true that He/he comes under mithyaa along with his shakti.

Iswara as existence-consciousness one not different from Brahman - the substantive of both Iswara and shakti - is sat only. 

Iswara is there as separate entity with his power when I see the creation separate from me and there is a creator, Iswara and creation involves obviously a power to create and that is his shakti. 
maayantu prakRitim vidyaat says Up. Know maaya is prakRiti only.
And mayaa adhyakshena prakRitiH suuyate - under my presidentship the prakRiti manifests into many.
daiviim eshaa guNamayi mama maayaa duratyayaa - This maaya of mine is of divine origin. 
Hence maaya and Iswara go together as creator and his creating power. 
However when I try to inquire further who is that Iswara and what is that maaya - we are back to ch. up Sat vidya - that substantive sat which is the material cause and intelligent cause for this namkevaste creation - vaachaarambhanam vikaara creation is tat tvam asi - Hence Iswara and his shakti resolve in to I - the existence-consciousness that I am. 
To understand clearly only one needs a proper teacher - otherwise we end up splitting the Ch.Up. mantra as a-tat tvam asi, swetaketu.

jiiva jagat Iswara - triad has to resolve into binary as aatma-anaatma with anaatma being mithyaa since the substantive of anaatma is nothing but Brahman. By the by there is nothing wrong in the clay-pot or gold-ornament or Iron-tool examples as provided by Upanishad to establish that the creation is vaachaarambhanam vikaarah and loham iti EVA satyam - Clay alone is real not the pot and Gold alone is real not the ring, Iron alone is real not the nail-cutter. Each example exemplifies the vivarta kaarya-kaaraNa sambandha - a transformation-less transformations.
 

Hari Om!
Sadananda