, also spelled or Ik Oankaar (Gurmukhi: or ; ); literally, "There is only one God or One creator or one Om-maker") is a phrase in Sikhism that denotes the one supreme reality. It is a central tenet of Sikh religious philosophy. are the first words of the Mul Mantar and also the opening words of the Sikh holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib. The first symbol "ik" is actually not a word but the Punjabi symbol for the number 1. () is interpreted as "one and only one, who cannot be compared or contrasted with any other", the "unmanifest, Lord in power, the holy word, the primal manifestation of the Godhead by which and in which all live, move and have their being and by which all find a way back to Absolute God, the Supreme Reality." has a distinct spelling in the Gurmukhi script and the phrase is found in many Sikh religious scriptures and inscribed in places of worship such as gurdwaras. In Mul Mantar is also the opening phrase of the Mul Mantar, present as opening phrase in the Guru Granth Sahib, and the first composition of Guru Nanak and the final salok is by Guru Angad. Further, the Mul Mantar is also at the beginning of the Japji Sahib, followed by 38 hymns and a final Salok by Guru Angad at the end of this composition. Description is the statement of oneness in Sikhism, that is 'there is one God'. According to Wendy Doniger, the phrase is a compound of ("one" in Punjabi) and , canonically understood in Sikhism to refer to "absolute monotheistic unity of God". Etymologically, the word denotes the sacred sound "om" or the absolute in a number of Indian religions. Nevertheless, Sikhs give it an entirely different meaning. Pashaura Singh writes that "the meaning of Oankar in the Sikh tradition is quite different in certain respects from the various interpretations of this word in the Indian philosophical traditions", and the Sikhs "rather view Oankar as pointing to the distinctively Sikh theological emphasis on the ineffable quality of God, who is described as 'the Person beyond time,' the Eternal One, or 'the One without form'." is, according to Wazir Singh, a "variation of Om (Aum) of the ancient Indian scriptures (with a slight change in its orthography), implying the seed-force that evolves as the universe." Guru Nanak wrote a poem entitled Oankar in