How exactly does Maya help to explain Brahman?

Some questions are easy to answer but hard to understand.
 I think of this question as being "hard to answer and hard to understand."  But that's
the way a lot of religious teachings are.  They are supposed to remind us that as human
beings we need to be humble as we're not as clever as we often think that we
are.

In Hinduism, Brahman is sort of like the Christian
God.  It is the originator of everything.  It is the real thing
that exists outside of time and space.  It is both beyond humans and reflective of their
characters. Brahman is the creator of the universe and the pillar that supports it.
 Depending on the tradition, it either has some human characteristics or does not.
 According to Hinduism, we are all part of Brahman though we don't fully realize
it.

Maya is in charge of "veiling" the truth (that being
the fact that everyone is part of Brahman.)  It separates humans from Brahman in the way
a piece of cloth can cover an object.  It is real in that we perceive
it to be real, but only Brahman is actually real.  The
goal of people is to figure out a way to poke a hole in the fabric of Maya and see the
truth of Brahman.

Think of it like this...in a dark room
you see rope and think it's a snake.  You are convinced it is a snake and your senses
confirm this.  Therefore, to you, it is a real snake. But turn the
lights on and you see it's just a rope.  That it really was a rope all
along. That's how Maya creates a sort of false reality around
Brahman.

Maya is generally considered a negative thing.  It
keeps people from knowing the truth.  In some way it corresponds to the Christian devil
in that it keeps people from true spiritual connection.  But in the same way that Satan
is ultimately a product of God himself, Maya is a product of Brahman (as Brahman is
responsible for everything.)

It's an interesting situation,
a little hard to understand, but that's about it.