According to Advaita is there any difference in the atman before entering maya and after exiting maya?
In other words, does the atman gain or lose anything e.g., knowledge?
Does it gain any knowledge after exiting the maya. Is there any change in it's nature?
Does it merge in God or Brahman or something?
I want to know about any change even minute that happens in the atman.
By atman I mean the "soul" that Vivekananda refers to as being "eternal and ever blissful".
Atman is unconditioned, immutable and formless.
Astavakra Samhita:
सशरीरमिदं विश्वं न किञ्चिदिति निश्र्चितम् ।
शुद्धचिन्मात्र आत्मा च तत्कस्मिन् कल्पनाघुना ।।I have known for certain that the body and the universe are nothing and that the Atman is Pure Consciousness alone. So on what is it now possible to base imagination? II.19
Atman neither enters nor exits, neither comes nor goes.
एकं सर्वगतं व्योम बहिरन्तर्यथा घटे ।
नित्यं निरन्तरं ब्रह्म सर्वभूतगणे तथा ।।As the same all pervading space is inside and outside a jar, so the eternal all pervasive Brahman exists in all things. I.20
नाहं देहो न मे देहो जीवो नाहमहं हि चित् ।
अयमेव हि मे बन्ध अासीद् या जीविते स्पृहा ।।I am not this body, nor have I a body. I am not Jiva, I am Pure Consciousness. This indeed was my bondage that I had thirst for life. II.22
