Who is Bhagavān? Who is God? The person who possesses all the riches, all the strength, all the wisdom, all the beauty, all renunciation, like that. He is called Bhagavān. So there is definition. Nowadays it has become a fashion that so many "Bhagavāns" or "Gods" are coming. But there is definition, there is test, who will be accepted as Bhagavān.
So when Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa, was present, He actually showed by His activities, by His behavior, that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For example—it may be unbelievable, but these are in the history of Kṛṣṇa—that Kṛṣṇa married 16,108 wives. Now, it is unbelievable. We cannot maintain even one wife. But He maintained 16,108 wives, and each wife had big palatial buildings. This description we have got. So that means so far riches are concerned, Kṛṣṇa showed that there is no second comparison in the whole history of the world that one is maintaining 16,000 wives and each wife has got special palace. These descriptions are there.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and by all the authorities of Vedic knowledge. Formerly, during Kṛṣṇa's time, there were authorities like Vyāsadeva, like Nārada. They also accepted that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And you will find in the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna, after understanding Kṛṣṇa, he expressed his opinion: paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān puruṣaṁ śāśvatam ādyam (BG 10.12).
(Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.)
He accepted. And he also said that "I am not accepting . . . Because it may be said that I am Your friend, so I am accepting You as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but great ācāryas or great stalwart authorities like Parāśara Muni, Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Asita, Devala . . ." He gave evidence.
So Kṛṣṇa is accepted. So far Vedic literature is concerned, the ācāryas are concerned . . . Recently, within, say, two thousand years, there have been many ācāryas like Śaṅkarācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Rāmānujācārya. They have all accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And, say, within five hundred years, Lord Caitanya, He also accepted Kṛṣṇa. By His symptoms, by the historical fact, by the evidence of the Vedas, He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, when Kṛṣṇa is speaking, the very words are used, śrī bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the Supreme Personality of Godhead is speaking. Uvāca means speaking.
Then our point is that we should have to receive Godhead from the highest perfectional person. Knowledge—our knowledge, your knowledge or anyone's knowledge—we are defect in four principles. Our . . . we commit mistake. Every one of us who are sitting in this meeting, nobody can say that "I have never committed any mistake." That is not possible. We commit mistake, everyone. We commit mistakes and we are sometimes illusioned. Illusioned. That we can make experiment, that every one of us at the present moment is illusioned. How it is? That I have . . . am not this body, but I am accepting this body as "I am." The whole world is—I may say whole world, but at least the majority portion—everyone is under the impression that "I am this body." But I am not this body. I am soul.
That will be instructed in the Bhaga . . . I am not this body. I am soul. I am spirit soul. There are so many evidences. If I am this body, then when the soul is not there, the living entity is not there, the body is simply a lump of matter. That is the difference between a dead body and living body. Living body means that the soul is there, therefore the body is moving. And as soon as the soul is not there, the body is nothing but a lump of matter. I think somebody as my father. I call, "Father," father immediately replies, "Yes, my son." But when the soul of the father is not there, then the father, this body of the father whom I am seeing as father, although he is there, still he cannot reply. This is the distinction.