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Aum (also Om) is a mystical or sacred syllable in the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religions. It is placed at the beginning of most Hindu texts as a sacred exclamation to be uttered at the beginning and end of a reading of the Vedas or previously to any prayer or mantra and also is said in the beginning of any puja (religious ritual). The Mandukya Upanishad is entirely devoted to the explanation of the syllable.
The Sanskrit name for the syllable is pranava, from a root nu "to shout, sound, praise", verbal pra-nu- being attested as "to make a humming or droning sound" in the Brahmanas, and taking the specific meaning of "to utter the syllable om" in the Chandogya Upanishad and the Shrauta Sutras. More rarely used terms are akṣara or ekākṣara, and in later times omkāra becomes prevalent.
It is also believed that after a very long time of meditation the Purusha Sukta revealed the word AUM as being the truth.
Buddhists place om at the beginning of their Vidya-Sadaksari or mystical formulary in six syllables (viz., om mani padme hum) As a seed syllable (bija mantra), it is also considered holy in Esoteric Buddhism.
With Buddhism's evolution and breaking away from Vedic/Hindu tradition, Aum and other symbology / cosmology / philosophies are shared with the Hindu tradition. This character often appeared as "唵" in Buddhist scripts in East Asia.
