Canto 1 - Boyhood
Bāla-kāṇḍa
Chapter 9: Conversation Between Sumantra and Daśaratha
Text 1.9.2
सनत्कुमारो भगवान्पूर्वं कथितवान्कथाम्।
ऋषीणां सन्निधौराजंस्तव पुत्रागमं प्रति॥
sanat-kumāro bhagavān pūrvaṁ kathitavān kathām
ṛṣīṇāṁ sannidhau rājaṁs tava putrāgamaṁ prati
sanat-kumāraḥ = Sanat-kumāra; bhagavān = the powerful; pūrvam = in the past; kathitavān = had spoken; kathām = of a future incident; ṛṣīṇām = of the sages; sannidhau = in the presence; rājan = O king; tava = your; putra-āgamam = attainment of a son; prati = concerning.
O king, in the presence of the sages, the powerful Sanat-kumāra had spoken in the past of a future incident concerning your attainment of a son.
This answers the question, “How did you hear about this?” Sanat-kumāra is referred to here as a bhagavān (“powerful”) for he had knowledge of the future.
NOTE. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī notes at the end of his Dig-darśinī commentary to his Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta:
āyatiṁ niyatiṁ caiva bhūtānām āgatāgatim
vetti vidyām avidyāṁ ca sa vācyo bhagavān iti
“One who knows the future and fortune, the birth and rebirth, the ignorance and enlightenment, of all beings can be called bhagavān.”
Of course, this conveys a restricted sense of the expression bhagavān. As well-established by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in his Bhagavat-sandarbha, the expression bhagavān, in its full, ultimate and unrestricted sense refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa and His eternal plenary expansions. See Bhagavat-sandarbha (Anucchedas 1 to 3) for a preliminary analysis of this subject.