Your best bet would be to buy a basics book for maya eg maya fundamentals if you've used a 3d app before especially lightwave you already understand the concepts. There fore you shouldn't have any problem going through the tut's in the book and quickly getting a grasp of how things are set out.

You really only need to understand the UI.
Then just search a couple of the sites i gave you for more specific questions. I find digital tutors to have plenty of free video's on all the basic tools as well as some advanced. I really recommend going there and checking the vids as well as 3d buzz before you buy any dvd's or books they will save you time and money.