Text 7]
Bhāgavatam is the Answer
557
tattvavidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate , called Param Brahma, Paramātmā or Bhagavān. The word  iti  used here in the verse completes the synonyms and thus indicates Bhagavān. This will be further explained in the later verses, but this Bhagavān means ultimately Lord Kṛṣṇa because the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  has already accepted the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Kṛṣṇa.  Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam . The original source of all energies or the  summum bonum  is the Absolute Truth which is called Param Brahma, etc., and Bhagavān is the last word of the Absolute Truth. But even with the synonyms of Bhagavān, such as Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, Puruṣa, etc., the last word is Kṛṣṇa, as confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā :  ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate , etc. Besides that, the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is the representation of Lord Kṛṣṇa as sound incarnation of the Lord.  Kṛṣṇe sva-dhāmopagate dharma-jñānādibhiḥ saha/ kalau naṣṭa-dṛśām eṣaḥ purāṇārko'dhunoditaḥ . Thus by general conclusion Lord Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate source of all energies, and the word Kṛṣṇa means that. And to explain Kṛṣṇa or the science of Kṛṣṇa, the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  has been prepared. In the First Canto of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  this truth is indicated in the questions and answers by Sūta Gosvāmī and great sages like Śaunaka, etc., and in the First and Second Chapters of the canto this is explained. In the Third Chapter this subject is more explicit, and in the Fourth Chapter even more explicit. In the Second Canto the Absolute Truth as the Personality of Godhead is further emphasized, and the indication is the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. The summary of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  in four verses, as we have already discussed, is succinct. This Supreme Personality of Godhead in the ultimate issue is confirmed by Brahmā in his  Brahma-saṁhitā  as  īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ . So it is concluded in the Third Canto of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . The complete subject matter is elaborately explained in the Tenth and Eleventh Cantos of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . In the matter of changes of the Manus of  manvantaras , such as the  Svāyambhuva manvantara  and  Cākṣuṣa manvantara , as they are discussed in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Cantos of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , Lord Kṛṣṇa is indicated. In the Eighth Canto Vaivasvata  manvantara  explains the same subject indirectly, and in the Ninth Canto the same purport is there. In the Twelfth Canto the same is further explained, specifically regarding the different incarnations of the Lord. Thus it is concluded by studying the complete  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate  summum bonum , or the ultimate source of all energy. And according to the grades of worshipers, the indications of the nomenclature may be differently explained as Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā, Paramātmā, etc.