Short answers, pulled from the story.
Brahman is the ultimate unchanging reality in Hindu metaphysics - uncreated, eternal, infinite, transcendent, and the cause and source of all existence. The concept is extensively discussed in the Vedic Samhitas, dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE, and the early Upanishads. Different schools of Hinduism disagree on whether Brahman is identical with the individual Self (Atman) or distinct from it.
Brahman is a gender-neutral metaphysical concept referring to the ultimate cosmic reality. Brahma is a male deity in the post-Vedic Puranic literature who creates but neither preserves nor destroys. Brahma is long-lived but not eternal, whereas Brahman is the uncreated, infinite source of all things. The Sanskrit root behind Brahman means "to swell, expand, grow, enlarge."
The Upanishads describe Brahman as the primordial reality that creates, sustains, and withdraws the universe within itself. The texts contain several mahavakyas or Great Sayings, including "All this is Brahman" from Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1 and "I am Brahman" from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10. The Katha Upanishad 1.2.18 states that Brahman is birthless, eternal, everlasting, and ancient, and is not killed when the body is killed.
Advaita Vedanta, associated with Adi Shankara, holds that Brahman is the sole unchanging reality and that the individual Self (Atman) is identical to Brahman; the universe does not simply come from Brahman but is Brahman. Dvaita Vedanta, associated with Madhvacharya, holds that the individual Self is permanently distinct from and dependent on Brahman. Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita identifies Brahman with God, specifically Narayana, and defines Brahman in his commentary on Brahma Sutras 1.1.1 as the "highest person" free from imperfections.
Maya is perceived reality - the changing, temporary world that does not reveal the ultimate reality of Brahman. Archibald Gough described Maya as "the indifferent aggregate of all the possibilities of emanatory or derived existences, pre-existing with Brahman," like a future tree pre-existing in a seed. Maya is unconscious and born in time; Brahman is eternal, unchanging, and resplendent consciousness.
Buddhism rejected the Upanishadic doctrine of Brahman and Atman. According to Damien Keown, the Buddha said he could find no evidence for the existence of either the personal Self or its cosmic counterpart, Brahman. Early Buddhist texts attacked the concept of Brahma while simultaneously calling metta (loving-kindness) the state of union with Brahma. Martin Wiltshire argued that the Buddhist use of the term "Brahma loka" instead of "Svarga loka" reflects an attempt to emphasize the truth-power and knowledge focus of the Brahman concept.