The Lord's own potency, of cause-and-effect form, mode-endowed
The modeless Lord creates by her: 'sad-asad-rupaya casau guna-mayya aguuo vibhuh' (SB 1.2.30).
Concept
Maya
माया
Also known as आत्ममाया · Atma-maya (the Lord's own potency)
Maya is the Lord's own potency (atma-maya): the creative, three-mode power that projects the world as the saguna display of the modeless Brahman; Vedanta also uses the word for ignorance. In the processed verses: the modeless Lord created this world in the beginning through her, in cause-and-effect form (SB 1.2.30); entered within her sporting modes He appears as if mode-endowed (1.2.31); and by her He plays His free pastimes (1.1.18).
Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa 1.2.30 — Sanskrit Wikisource (pinned oldid=110173)
When she, the lucid intellect, is withdrawn, completeness remains
'Yady esoparata devi maya vaisharadi matih sampanna eveti viduh' (SB 1.3.34).
The power whose nature is both being and non-being
Maitreya defines maya: that power of the seer, whose nature is both being and non-being, is called maya, and by it the all-pervading Lord built this world — 'sA vA etasya sandraShTuH shaktiH sad-asad-AtmikA / mAyA nAma mahA-bhAya yayedaM nirmame vibhuH' (SB 3.5.25).
Deluding even those who wield it
SB 3.6.39 holds the strongest statement of the reach of the Lord's maya in this Skandha: 'ato bhagavato mAyA mAyinAm api mohanI / yat svayaM cha Atma-vartAtmA na veda kim utApere' — for even the Self, whose nature is the Self, does not know it. SB 3.6.35 says the whole manifestation is risen by the force of this yoga-maya.
Its appearance is like the trembling of the moon in water
Answering Vidura's question, Maitreya gives the illustration: 'yathA jale chandramasaH kampAdis tat-kR^ito guNaH / dR^ishyate asann api draShTur Atmano anAtmano guNaH' (SB 3.7.11) — as the trembling of the moon in water is a quality made by the water and appears to the seer though it is not near, so the qualities appear to the seer, qualities of the self which are not the self.
Fading by the compassion of Vasudeva
At SB 3.7.12 the way of maya's fading is given: 'sa vai nivR^itti-dharmeNa vAsudevAnukampayA / bhagavad-bhakti-yogena tirodhatte shanair iha' — by the nature of withdrawal, by the compassion of Vasudeva, and by the yoga of devotion to the Lord, it fades slowly. At SB 3.7.13, when the senses come to rest the afflictions dissolve wholly into the seer.