Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 90: Bharata Meets Bharadvāja Ṛṣi
Text 2.90.15
हतोऽस्मि यदि मामेवं भगवानपि मन्यते।
मत्तो न दोषमाशङ्के नैवं मामनुशाधि हि॥
hato ’smi yadi mām evaṁ bhagavān api manyate
matto na doṣam āśaṅke naivaṁ mām anuśādhi hi
hataḥ asmi = I am dead; yadi = if; mām = about me; evam = in this manner; bhagavān = Your Holiness api = also; manyate = thinks; mattaḥ = because of Me; na = don’t; doṣam = any harm [to befall Rāma]; āśaṅke = I expect; na = please do not; evam = in this manner; mām = Me; anuśādhi hi = chastise.
If Your Holiness also thinks about Me in this manner, I am dead! I don’t expect any harm [to befall Rāma] because of Me. Please do not chastise Me in this manner.
“I am dead” [idiomatically] means “My life is useless.” Bhagavān [in this context] indicates that the sage Bharadvāja knew the past, present and future. Matto na doṣam āśaṅke indicates that Bharata had no doubt whatsoever that He had done anything wrong [to Rāma]. “Please do not chastise Me in this manner” means “You should not speak words that pain My ears in this manner.”
Anticipating that the sage might respond, “Your mother’s doing is factually Your doing,” Bharata speaks the next verse.
NOTE. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī states the following at the end of his Dig-darśinī commentary to Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta 3.7.157:
āyatiṁ niyatiṁ caiva bhūtānām āgatāgatim
vetti vidyām avidyāṁ ca sa vācyo bhagavān iti
“One is called bhagavān who knows the future and fortune, the birth and rebirth, the ignorance and enlightenment, of all beings.”
It is in this sense that Bharadvāja has been referred to as bhagavān here.