Maya is not the teaching that the world is unreal. It is the teaching that the world is not what it appears to be.
The Sanskrit word maya comes from a root meaning to measure, to create, to appear. It is the cosmic creative power through which the infinite appears as finite, the one appears as many, the formless takes form.
Shankara used the image of a rope mistaken for a snake in the darkness. The fear is real — but its object is not what we thought. When light comes, the snake does not disappear; the rope is revealed.
Brahman is real. The world is Maya. The individual self is Brahman itself — this is the essence of Vedanta.
Maya is not the enemy. It is the teacher. It is the divine playing hide-and-seek with itself, using us as both the seeker and the hidden.