ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Abhijñā

Abhijñā is a special word from the ancient Indian language (Sanskrit) that means "knowing things really well." Have you ever seen a puzzle or a tricky math problem that you solved and felt really smart afterward? That's a little bit like abhijñā!

In ancient India, there were people called sages who spent a lot of time thinking about the world and trying to understand it. They thought that the world was full of things that we don't normally notice, like hidden connections between things, or patterns that only show up if you look really closely.

The sages also thought that if you practiced really hard, you could learn how to notice these hidden things and understand them better than anyone else. This was called abhijñā, and it was like having superpowers for your brain!

To get good at abhijñā, you had to spend a lot of time practicing different skills, like memorization, logic, and meditation. You had to be very patient and pay attention to things that might seem boring or unimportant at first.

But if you kept practicing, you would start to notice things that other people couldn't see, like patterns in nature or special meanings in stories. You would become a master of abhijñā, and people would come to you for advice or to hear your wise thoughts.

So, abhijñā is all about learning how to notice things that other people might miss, and understanding them really well. It takes a lot of practice and patience, but if you work hard at it, you might become a sage someday too!