Atlantis is one of the names used to refer to the highly evolved society having existed before the birth of the main antique civilisations. There are many sources referring to it but there are also plenty of interpretations, beliefs and disbeliefs around it.
It is clear however that also the remainings of the Maya cultures, how little they may be, indicate they descended from truly great ancestors and a highly evolved culture. Just as this is the case with the other antique cultures in Egypt, China, Greece or India who have been studied by archeology.

One of the gnostic sources actually speaks about Atlantis as an island and/or later a series of islands around the equator spread all over the globe. Combined with the understanding of cyclic Time and a series of dramatic geographical changes occurred in the passed (like the change of the earth axis), it becomes clear that the pre-Maya tribes could be direct descendents and survivors of that highly evolved civilisation.

Mayas originally were aware of the swastika principle. They fully understood the scientific law of entropy whereby all systems naturally loose their potential energy, to degrade to a minimum point of entropic energy whereby a shift or a complete re-balancing occurs.
Our planet originally lived in a golden age, united in harmony, based on justice (Indian sources speak about 'Dharma' and link the swastika directly to it) and high technological knowledge and systems. This society gradually declined and evolved into several continental areas. Those areas however were still in contact through advanced transport systems (there are many sources, like Mahabharata pointing out to flying vehicles, called vimans, available in the so-called Atlantis).
At one point, halfway the Cycle of Time, call it a climax, the world shook, geography changed, technology was lost and a totally new era started.
The civilisations which immediately followed, like the Mayas, Egyptians (and the same principle applies for ancient India and China f.i.) now continued independently. Initially they reflected and referred to the greatness of their ancestors, but gradually also lost more and more power. Entropic evolution then implied further decline until today's situation of complete moral downfall and demographic explosion, in spite of spectacular technological evolution.

The point of all this is that we can apply the Maya's Time principle to realize that we are now at the end of the Cycle of Time and in front of a new climax, geographical change, but also at the dawn of a new Atlantis. Todays changes have been foreseen by Mayas ancestors who have left them in prophecy form such as found in the tomb of Pacal Votan in Palenque.

 

The Mahabharata

The Mahabharata describes this creation mechanism quite well.
This Indian creation story tells the story of the 'big-India', the 'maha-Bharat', who originally was one kingdom, where all lived in unity. The Pandavas and the Kuravas, descendents from the same king, and were thus brothers (reflecting the idea that we're all belonging to the same world family). However they gradually entered into a conflict. The conflict finally turns out into war in which everything is destroyed but from where a new people again could rise and live again in peace.

This is creation time. The Mahabharata thus refers to today and shows us a lot:

The battlefield is not only a physical battlefield, but even more the field of our actions and the field where the result of our actions comes back to us - it shows us how finally Dharma, right integrative action, is the only real key. We're now all in front of our karma (result of our action) in this field of karma.

This is not a pessimistic or obscure reality. It is the nature of cyclic evolution. The Mahabharata shows how we can take up responsibility, stand up and choose for Dharma (right integrative action) again.

The true battle finally happens in our heart. We're now challenged to resharpen our intellect in defining which illusions (maya) are withholding us from Dharma. This is not an easy process but the only way out.

P.S. If you're interested in knowing more about it, a suggestion could be having a look to one of the films about it, like the one from Peter Brooks, using above keys to interpret.