Belongs To Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Sikhism Mantras gathers three formulas, and unlike most of the atlas's other mantra groupings this one uses the tradition's own word, mantar, rather than importing a Sanskritic comparative term from outside.

Ik Onkar, the first two words of Sikh scripture, asserts oneness in a form that cannot be declined, pluralised or turned into a name, written with the numeral one so the grammar itself carries the doctrine; it is also the tradition's commonest emblem, appearing on gurdwaras and on the nishan sahib. The Mul Mantar, the opening lines of the Guru Granth Sahib, is the compressed statement Ik Onkar belongs to and opens, though where the Mul Mantar itself ends is a genuine internal disagreement, some holding it closes at gur prasad and others carrying it through the following line. Waheguru is the name most used in naam simran, remembrance of the divine name repeated aloud, in company and silently with the breath; it began as an exclamation of astonishment turned into a name, and Sikh practice treats its remembrance as available to anyone in any circumstance rather than confined to a priesthood or a ritual setting.

The three members together move from a doctrinal assertion, to the fuller statement it opens, to the name a practitioner actually repeats in daily remembrance.