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

[r.g.morrison]

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

Robert:
: 'I am a son of the Buddha [bhagavatomhi
: > putto], born of his mouth, born of the Dhamma, created by the Dhamma, 
and
: > heir of the Dhamma'.
: ====================
Joanna:
: 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?
: Thanks for any help with this...
: Joanna

As far as I understand this, 'buddha' is only one among many epithets that 
the guy, Gautama, collected after his realization.  Bhagavant or bhagavan, 
Jina, Sugata, Tathagata, etc. are others.  It may well be a simply accident 
of history that the epithet 'buddha' stuck with Gautama, and epithet 'jina' 
stuck with Mahavira, otherwise Buddhists (or bauddhas) might have been 
Jainas, and Jainas might have been Buddhists (or bauddhas)!  And, yes, 
'bhagwan' is just the modern 'version' of bhagavant/bhagavan, which in the 
Buddhist sense has no god-like connotations, but, as an epithet means 
'Fortunate One', 'Happy One' , or 'Illustrious One', etc., sometimes 
translated as the 'Lord'.  The 'god' bit comes with the Bhagavad-gita, I 
think, and of course we've had Bhagvan Shree Rashneesh!

Robert Morrison