page_title: Om
section_title: Puranas
hierarchical_section_title: Om / Hinduism / Puranas
caption_attribution_description: A statue of Ganesha.This statue is face of elephant.It has beautifully decorated in a type of stones.
context_page_description: Om or Aum is a sacred sound and a spiritual symbol in Indian religions. It signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Atman. More broadly, it is a syllable that is chanted either independently or before a spiritual recitation in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The meaning and connotations of Om vary between the diverse schools within and across the various traditions. It is part of the iconography found in ancient and medieval era manuscripts, temples, monasteries and spiritual retreats in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
  In Hinduism, Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols. It refers to Atman and Brahman. The syllable is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu texts. It is a sacred spiritual incantation made before and during the recitation of spiritual texts, during puja and private prayers, in ceremonies of rites of passage such as weddings, and sometimes during meditative and spiritual activities such as Yoga.
  The syllable Om is also referred to as onkara, omkara and pranava.
context_section_description: The medieval era texts of Hinduism, such as the Puranas adopt and expand the concept of Om in their own ways, and to their own theistic sects. According to the Vayu Purana, Om is the representation of the Hindu Trimurti, and represents the union of the three gods, viz. A for Brahma, U for Vishnu and M for Shiva. The three sounds also symbolise the three Vedas, namely (Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda).
  The Shiva Purana highlights the relation between deity Shiva and the Pranava or Om. Shiva is declared to be Om, and that Om is Shiva.
caption: The Hindu deity Ganesha is sometimes linked to the symbol Om and as the symbol for Upanishadic concept of Brahman.[82][83]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:03:04 20:12:20", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8377", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1684", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1808"}