Advaita Vedanta is usually taught the way it was written — commentary upon commentary, one technical term unlocking the next. That's the right way to actually study it. It is not the right way to first see the shape of the whole thing.
So here is the whole thing, in one flowchart: what Brahman is, why the world appears at all, what that produces in an ordinary human life, what the teaching actually claims, and what changes — not fixed, but seen through — once it lands.
One piece worth flagging before you look at it: Brahman itself splits into two readings right at the top, and everything downstream depends on that split. Nirguna Brahman is the formless absolute — it never touches the world, never projects anything, never does. Saguna Brahman, or Ishvara, is the personal God, Brahman considered together with Maya — and it's only at this level that any projecting, any "why does the one appear as many," happens at all. Skip this distinction and the whole rest of the chart looks like Brahman itself is doing something. It isn't. Only Ishvara is.
