At the last breath, the yogi sounds Om as Brahman and holds the Lord in remembrance.

Advaita Vedānta

These commentators read the 'supreme goal' as reached by gradual liberation (krama-mukti), not immediate liberation. The soul first goes by the path of the gods to the world of Brahma, enjoys there, and only at the end of that enjoyment attains the highest course. The qualifier 'supreme' attached to 'course' is read precisely with this gradual liberation in view. One presents the Brahman that is 'near' (the lower Brahman of worship) as what is first attained, and through that the pure Brahman. One notes a tension with Patanjali's Yoga teaching, where devotion to the Lord through Om yields absorption (samadhi), not directly the supreme course; he resolves it by saying that the verse describes one who, uttering Om and remembering the Lord, is firmly established in self-concentration, or simply that different fruits are possible, so there is no contradiction.

Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri

Bhedabheda

This commentator explicitly rejects the gradual-liberation reading. He argues that the topic here is the higher knowledge, not the lower worship that merely takes Om as a support. Since the chapter's pledge was about 'that which the knowers of the Veda call the Imperishable', what is described cannot be a liberation deferred to another time. He reads the Lord remembered here as the Supreme Self, all-pervading like space, omniscient, bliss, and immortal, and takes this verse as making specific what was stated generally earlier, that at the last moment one comes to the Lord alone. He adds that the Lord is not hard to reach for one who is constantly devoted with mind on no other.

Śrī Bhāskara

Śuddhādvaita

These commentators draw a careful distinction: the 'supreme goal' reached here is the 'akshara'-'dhama', the imperishable abode that belongs to the Lord, and not the Lord himself (the Purushottama). The well-equipped knower reaches that abode by gradual liberation; from there, when grace ripens, he may yet be drawn into the Purushottama-state itself, but what this verse names is the abode, not the master of the abode. One reads Om as the single syllable of three letters answering to the Purusha joined to his pair of powers, and the supreme course as 'the course of the nature of akshara'. One notes that the sharper distinction, between this akshara-attainment and the Purushottama that exclusive devotion alone secures, comes later in the chapter.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Dvaita

This commentary works mainly at the grammatical and structural level. It asks why breath-restraint is mentioned again when sense-restraint was already covered, and answers that here the nadis, the channels through which the breath moves, are what is taken up. It glosses 'iti' as meaning 'because', supports the upward departure with the phrase 'he goes to the sun', cross-references the Moksha-dharma, and addresses how concentration (yoga) can be spoken of when what is really required at death is an unbroken stream of remembrance.

Śrī Jayatīrtha

Bhakti

These commentators emphasize the inseparable unity of the outer sound and the inner devotional feeling, and the soul's travel by the path of light to the Lord's own dhama. One adds a striking culmination: as the union with Om becomes complete, the very meditation on Om stops and the breath itself comes to rest, leaving only the pure essence of the Supreme Brahman, beyond which there is nothing further to reach. The same voice answers the seeker's natural worry about how anyone could remember the Lord when the organs are failing at death: to one who uninterruptedly dedicated his life to meditation, the Lord himself becomes the servant who does his bidding at the ebbing of life.

Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar

Modern

One treats the verse historically and textually, noting that the Lord's description in the preceding verses is borrowed from the Upanishads (Svetasvatara, Katha), and that the words 'akshara' and 'pada' were deliberately kept double-meaninged in translation: Om is both a letter of the alphabet and, as the symbol of Brahman, the imperishable itself; here the worship of the Om-syllable is clearly meant. The other gives a plain practical account of the whole death-procedure: drawing in all the sense-doors so each rests in its own place, holding the mind in the heart, raising the breath into the crown, settling in concentration, and then uttering Om alone, the one-syllabled Brahman, while remembering the Lord.

Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas