Beyond its place as the opening character of Sikh scripture, Ik Onkar has an independent life as a visual and devotional symbol, displayed in ways that operate somewhat apart from the theological content of the Mul Mantar it introduces.
The character itself, a numeral one joined to a stylized rendering of oan, is treated with a degree of reverence in Sikh visual culture: it is commonly rendered in gold or in the saffron and blue associated with Sikh iconography, displayed above the entrance of gurdwaras worldwide, and reproduced on jewelry, vehicles and clothing as an immediately recognizable marker of Sikh identity even for viewers with no knowledge of the theology it compresses, comparable to how a cross or a Star of David functions as recognizable shorthand elsewhere.
Ik Onkar is sometimes displayed alongside, and occasionally confused with, the Khanda, the double-edged sword crossed with a chakra and flanked by two curved swords that serves as the Khalsa's more overtly martial emblem, appearing on the Sikh flag (Nishan Sahib) and associated with the Khalsa founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. The two symbols express different aspects of Sikh identity, one theological, drawn from the opening of scripture, the other martial and communal, drawn from institutional history, and their frequent co-display is generally read within the community as expressing the tradition's own insistence that spiritual devotion and worldly engagement are not competing commitments but a single way of life.