Sat Sri akal
Can anyone please explain me the meaning of ong. There must be a reason as to why gurus used ong and not aum. Also what does ik signifies in ikongkar. And finally how does this differ to Aum. Thanks
Like Prakash ji said, there is no difference between the two. The only difference in in pronunciation and I think it comes from ignorance and distortion of the way it is actually pronounced which is with a
nasal m sound. Not a nasal n, or a ng, or even an M, it is a nasal m. Now the difference between those sounds is subtle but it's there.
Why is it a nasal m and not the others? Because there is a Tippi
ੰ there as in
ਓਅੰ ਸਾਧ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਨਮਸਕਾਰੰ ॥ (the Hindi equivalent is Chandbindu). Both tippi and chandbindu are nasal m sounds, and both are there in the spellings of Om in Punjabi and Hindi.
Btw nasal n sounds comes from Bindi
ਂ, whilst nasal m comes from tippi
ੰ. Oan or On would be spelled like this:
ਓਅਂ, which is incorrect. Ong is the worst, because in Punjabi we do have an 'ng' sound it's spelled like this:
ਙ.
So that clears up Ong,Oan, On, and Om. the correct is Om where the m is nasal.
Why is it written as Aum sometimes? That's simply spelling out the
akshar and
matra in Hindi.
There is the '3', the 'o' and the Chandbindu (the crescent moon and dot, above them). A u and m are the english equivalents of the above, the 3 o and chandbindu. In Punjabi if we were to do the same it would be Oam representing
ਓ ਅ ੰ.