Disk Utility - Container Disks

Assuming Container Disk 1 is the first partition on the drive, you cannot delete it and merge 2 into it. It only works the other direction, delete 2 and merge into 1.

Make a backup of 2, erase the entire drive (Aura N2 1TB Media), reinstall Monterey, then Migrate from the backup.

is there a command that will allow me to merge the two containers without having to reinstall?

As I stated, if the partitions are in the correct order, you can just drag the handle from the first partition end through the free space to merge the partitions. If the first partition is free space and the second is the one you want to use, it cannot be done.