bhagavan

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> It also refers to great people like Vyasa, Narada, Indra, Siva etc.

> usually it means a powerful personality. In several places in the

> Bhagavatam and also in other puranas and Vedic literature this term has

> been used for many people.

 

Actually, bhagavan does _not refer_ to anyone other than Lord Krsna.

Sometimes, the word bhagavan is used as a title for some great

personalities, and Srila Prabhupada explains why in the purport to S.B.

5.1.17, as follows:

 

Lord Visnu, the Supreme Self (atma), is the source of everything, as

explained in the Vedanta-sutra: janmady asya yatah. Because Brahma was born

directly from Lord Visnu, he is called atma-yoni. He is also called

bhagavan, although generally bhagavan refers to the Supreme personality of

Godhead (Visnu or Lord Krsna). Sometimes great personalities—such as

demigods like Lord Brahma, Narada or Lord Siva—are also addressed as

bhagavan because they carry out the purpose of the Supreme personality of

Godhead. Lord Brahma is called bhagavan because he is the secondary creator

of this universe.

 

Srila Prabhupada, in the purport to Bhagavad-Gita 2.2, nicely analyses the

word Bhagavan as follows:

 

The Sanskrit word bhagavan is explained by the great authority Parasara

Muni, the father of Vyasadeva. The Supreme Personality who possesses all

riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all

renunciation is called Bhagavan. There are many persons who are very rich,

very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much

detached, but no one can claim that he possesses all riches, all strength,

etc., entirely. Only Krsna can claim this because He is the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. No living entity, including Brahma, Lord Siva, or

Narayana, can possess opulences as fully as Krsna. Therefore it is concluded

in the Brahma-samhita by Lord Brahma himself that Lord Krsna is the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to or above Him. He is the primeval

Lord, or Bhagavan, known as Govinda, and He is the supreme cause of all

causes:

 

isvarah paramah krsnah

sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah

anäadiradir govindah

sarva-karana-karanam

 

“There are many personalities possessing the qualities of Bhagavan, but

Krsna is the supreme because none can excel Him. He is the Supreme Person,

and His body is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. He is the primeval

Lord Govinda and the cause of all causes.” (Brahma-samhita 5.1)

 

In the Bhagavatam also there is a list of many incarnations of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, but Krsna is described as the original Personality

of Godhead, from whom many, many incarnations and Personalities of Godhead

expand:

 

ete camsa-kalah pumsah

krsnas tu bhagavan svayam

indrari-vyakulam lokam

mrdayanti yuge yuge

 

“All the lists of the incarnations of Godhead submitted herewith are either

plenary expansions or parts of the plenary expansions of the Supreme

Godhead, but Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.” (Bhag.

1.3.28)