Hare Krishna!
Let me enlighten you about how the Bhakti proponents view the distinction between ‘Brahman’ and ‘Bhagawan’.
Bhagawan, not Brahman is the Absolute Truth
Actually, most people consider Krishna or Bhagwan as a manifestation of Brahman. However, Krishna himself disagrees with this in Bhagavad Gita.
brahmano hi pratisthaham (BG 14.27)
I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman
Krishna says that the impersonal Brahman actually rests on him. Srila Prabhupada and other Vaishnav acharyas have gone on to explain that the ‘Brahman’ is the impersonal aspect of ‘Bhagawan’ the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In other places like the Upanishads as well this is hinted that the Brahma Jyoti is the covering of the face of ‘Bhagawan’
hiraṇmayena pātreṇa
satyasyāpihitaṁ mukham
tat tvaṁ pūṣann apāvṛṇu
satya-dharmāya dṛṣṭaye
O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.
Thus the proponents of Bhakti movements do not consider ‘Bhakti’ as devotion to the manifestation of ‘Brahman’. Rather it is understood quite differently.
Proponents of Bhakti movement consider devotion to ‘Bhagawan Krishna’ whose impersonal aspect is the Brahma Jyoti.
How the ‘Advaita’ and Bhakti movement s correlate?
The liberation achieved by following the Advaita Vedanta is Brahman realization. This is considered a lower stage of realization as per the Vaishnavas.
The Vaishnavas consider two higher stages of realization. ‘ The ‘Paramatma’ realization and the ‘Bhagawan’ realization. Let me explain them.
- Brahman Realization
This is the preliminary stage of liberation. The ‘gyani’ follows the process of ‘naiti’ ‘naiti’ / ‘Not this’ ‘not this’ and separates spirit from matter. In the final stage, he is situated in Brahman that he is the pure soul and not matter. This is the beginning of liberation. From this stage, he can develop to further stages of ‘Paramatma’ and ‘Bhagwan’ realization. Advaita proponents consider this as the highest stage. In this stage, there is not material tinge involved. However, the relation between soul and God is not very clear at this point in time. Nevertheless, the jiva is liberated.
- Prarmatma realization
When the yogi meditates in his heart and his process of meditation is perfect he sees the Supreme Lord Narayana within his heart. Thus he sees the form of the Lord for the first time and his impersonal conceptions begin to slowly shed. This is the intermediate stage and from here he can progress to realize the personal God Krishna or Narayana and engage in devotion to him.
- Bhagwan realization
This is the final stage of realization and is considered as the perfection. In this stage, the living entity achieves his constitutional position of being in eternal service to God, Krishna or his innumerable forms as Narayana, Rama, Narasimha and so on.
Here he is involved in different devotional mellows or rasas with the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. You can relate to the ‘gopis’ and ‘gopas’ (cowherd folks) who were blissfully playing with Krishna in Vrindavan. Or the subjects Of Lord Ram in Saket. Or the devotees of Vishnu in Vaikuntha.