[Buddha-l] 'Sons of Brahma, sons of Buddha?'

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 11:12 -0600, jkirk wrote:

> Now that this term "bhagavat" appears, I'd like to ask how it could be used
> as an epithet of the Buddha, since bhagwaan (from which I assume it's
> derived) usually is glossed as "god" or "deity." Or is this wrong? Are there
> several glosses for bhagavat?

Bhagavant is usually said to be derived from "bhaga" plus the possessive
suffix "vant". "Bhaga" means good fortune, wealth, prosperity, beauty,
glory, happiness and so forth. It can be applied to any human being or
deity who is blessed with, well, blessings. Bhagwan Rajneesh, for
example.

-- 
Richard Hayes
***
"Books are useless to us until our inner book opens; then all other
books are good so far as they confirm our book."
        (Swami Vivekananda)