ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Nirguna Brahman

Nirguna Brahman is a tricky thing to explain, but I’m going to try and explain it in a simple way so that even a 5-year-old child can understand it.

Now, imagine that there is a big, huge, very powerful thing in the universe that is beyond our understanding. This thing is called Brahman. It’s not a person, or an animal, or even a thing you can touch or see, It is beyond all of that! It’s like a big ball of energy that surrounds everything in the universe.

But, there’s something special about this Brahman, there are two types; the first type is called Saguna Brahman, and the second type is called Nirguna Brahman.

Saguna Brahman is easier to understand, it’s like imagining that Brahman has a personality or form, like imagine Brahman as a superhero with a name, a face, and a superpower.

On the other hand, Nirguna Brahman is a little more tough to wrap our heads around. It’s like imagining Brahman as this ball of energy without any personality, power, or any attributes. It’s Brahman without any qualities, good or bad, or even any description at all, it’s just there.

That sounds complicated, doesn’t it? Here is a story that might make things clearer.

Imagine that you have a toy car, it’s your favorite toy, and you play with it every day. You give it a name, you decorate it, you take care of it, and you love it. Now, imagine that the toy car is Saguna Brahman, similar to the superhero we talked about earlier. You can see the toy car, but it only exists because you gave it life, and you are attached to it.

Now imagine that you lose the toy car, you can’t find it anywhere, but you know that it’s there; that thing which makes the car, the toy car-ness, the toy car-ness which exists even without the toy car is called Nirguna Brahman. Even though you cannot see or touch it, the toy car-ness is still there all around you, and it does not have any specific shape or form, but it exists everywhere.

That’s what Nirguna Brahman is, it’s like the "toy car-ness" without the toy car. It’s hard to understand, but it’s a very important part of understanding the universe and the world around us.