Codex of FaithsAn illustrated atlas of belief
ੴ

Letters and words

Ik Onkar

Ik Onkar, “There is one God”, the first words of the Sikh scripture and the most sacred symbol of Sikhism: how it is written, what it means and where it is seen.

Also called Ek Onkar · Ik Oankar

In brief

  1. I.Ik Onkar means “One God”, or “There is one creator”.
  2. II.It opens the Mul Mantar, the first words of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture.
  3. III.It is written as the numeral 1 followed by the Gurmukhi letters for “Onkar”.
  4. IV.It expresses the heart of Sikh belief: the oneness of God.

Chapter I

What it means

Ik Onkar is the Sikh creed in two characters. Ik is the numeral one, written as a figure rather than a word so that it cannot be misread. Onkar names God as the creative power present in everything. Together: there is one God, the source of all that exists.

For Sikhs this oneness means that all people are equal before God, whatever their religion, caste or sex, and that God can be found within every person.

Chapter II

Where it comes from

Ik Onkar opens the Mul Mantar, composed by Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the founder of Sikhism, and placed at the beginning of the scripture first compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604 as the Adi Granth and now revered as the Guru Granth Sahib. Each section of the scripture begins with it.

Chapter III

Where you see it today

Ik Onkar is written over gurdwara doors, on the canopies over the scripture, on jewellery, on vehicles and in homes. It is spoken and sung daily in Sikh prayer.

Questions people ask

Is Onkar the same as Om?

The word is related to the Indian sacred syllable Om, but Guru Nanak added the numeral one to stress that God is one, present in all creation and beyond it.

What is the Mul Mantar?

The “root verse” at the start of the Guru Granth Sahib, summing up the nature of God: one, the true name, the creator, without fear, without hate, timeless, beyond birth, self-existent, known by the Guru’s grace.

Sources and further reading

  1. W. Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi, The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Sussex Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1995)
  2. Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed (Bloomsbury, 2013)
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Religious symbolism and iconography”

← All symbols · ↑ Back to top