Hindus believe that as creation began, the divine, all-encompassing consciousness took the form of the first and original vibration manifesting as the sound OM. OM is a sacred syllable representing Brahman, the impersonal Absolute — omnipotent, omnipresent, and the source of all manifest existence. OM represents both the unmanifest (nirguna) and manifest (saguna) aspects of God. It is called pranava, to mean that it pervades life and runs through our prana or breath. The OM syllable consists of three phonemes, a Vaishvanara, u Hiranyagarbha and m Ishwara, which symbolize the beginning, duration, and dissolution of the universe.