As we may recall, Gurū Nānak's Mūl Mantra precedes the Japu. The Purātan Janamsākhī records that the Japu was the first expression of Gurū Nānak's vision of the Transcendent articulated in the Divine Presence. The Japu is the opening text in the Gurū Granth, and it has become the morning prayer for the Sikhs. The Mūl Mantra or the Creed Essential at the outset of the Japu begins with the celebration of Ikk Oaṅ Kār – the singular metaphysical ground of all that exists. We observed that the Mūl Mantra of the Sikh religion went on, characterizing that One as Truth, Creator of all, without fear, without enmity, timeless, unborn, without causality, and One Who can be known through the grace of the Gurū alone. The Mūl Mantra is epigrammatic in style, without the use of any conjunctions or prepositions. It has been read and interpreted in various ways. W. H. McLeod comments:

The rich metaphysical import of this crucial statement is not, however, as esoteric as McLeod would have it. To grasp the import of the Mūl Mantra, it is not absolutely necessary to have been brought up with “devoutness” or “understanding of individual words.”