The Perfect Name: Aum is the Lower and Higher Brahman: Translation and Commentaries on K1.26

Praṇavo - Oṁkāra

hyaparaṁ - indeed

Brahma – lower Brahman

praṇavaś-ca - and Oṁkāra

paraḥ - the higher (Brahman)

smṛtaḥ - is known;

apūrvo - without any cause preceding It

’nantaro - without inside

’bāhyo - without outside

’naparaḥ - without effect

praṇavo – Oṁkāra

’vyayah - without decay

26. Aum is verily the lower Brahman and it is also declared to be supreme Brahman. Praṇava is without any cause preceding it, without subsequent manifestation, without anything inside and outside, unrelated to any effect and changeless.

~Gaudapada (tr-Chinmayananda)

Commentary

Besides Gauḍapāda, Vasiṣṭha and others, the orthodox or the old school of advaitins in Vedānta, there is a modern school which allows for the perceived world a relative Reality. They call the multiple phenomenal world as the lower Brahman, which is the supreme Reality seemingly manifested through properties, actions, qualites and so on. The lower Brahman provides the idol for the worship of the upāsakas in Vedānta; the lower Brahman became saguṇa Brahman in later language of Vedānta. The old school of Vedānta mainly started and led by Gauḍapāda and Vasiṣṭha, does not accept the lower Brahman and insists on saying that the manifestation has never taken place.

On the contrary, the modern school of Vedānta founded by Śaṅkara and his followers, does permit a relative Reality for the manifested world. This is not because Śaṅkara believed that the pluralistic world is, in any sense real. In practice these two schools are not propounding mutually competing theories, but, in fact, they play a complementary role to each other. Śaṅkara’s attempt is to guide the sādhaka in and through the manifested realities to the unmanifest and the eternal Truth.

~Chinmayananda

Lower Brahman—That is, the Brahman which is looked upon as the cause of the universe. The dull and mediocre intellect should meditate upon Aum as described in the first line of Karika. The second line describes the soundless aspect of Aum or the Turiya Atman which can be understood only by one possessing the keenest intellect.

~Nikhilananda

From the 25th kārikā, he replaced the word Oṅkāra by the word praṇava. This word is not used in the Upaniṣad. Praṇava is a synonym for Oṅkāra that is used in the other Upaniṣads. The meaning of praṇava is perfect name, ideal name, or suitable name. For Brahman or God the ideal name is Oṅkāra. That is why Oṅkāra is called praṇava. God is one and OM is one syllable.

The Oṅkāra represents saguṇa Brahman. The silent part represents the nirguṇa Brahman. Nirguṇa Brahman is without a cause and an effect, without any second thing internally or externally, and without degeneration or declension. Oṅkāra can be used for saguṇa or nirguṇa dhyānam.

~Paramarthananda