एष उ एव बृहस्पतिः; वाग्वै बृहती, तस्या एष पतिः, तस्मादु बृहस्पतिः ॥ २० ॥
eṣa u eva bṛhaspatiḥ; vāgvai bṛhatī, tasyā eṣa patiḥ, tasmādu bṛhaspatiḥ || 20 ||
20. This alone is also Bṛhaspati (lord of the Ṛc). Speech is indeed Bṛhatī (Ṛc) and this is its lord. Therefore this is also Bṛhaspati.
This alone, the vital force in question called Āṅgirasa, is also Bṛhaspati. How? Speech is indeed Bṛhatī, the metre with thirty-six syllables. The metre Anuṣṭubh is speech. How? For the Śruti says, ‘Speech is indeed Anuṣṭubh’ (Tai. S. V. i. 3. 5). And this speech called Anuṣṭubh is included in the metre Bṛhatī. Hence it is right to say, ‘Speech is indeed Bṛhatī,’ as a well-known fact. And in Bṛhatī all Ṛces are included, for it is extolled as the vital force. For another Śruti says, ‘Bṛhatī is the vital force.’ (Ai. X. II. i. 6); ‘One should know the Ṛces as the vital force.’ (Ibid. II. ii. 2). The Ṛces are included in the vital force, as they consist of speech. How this is so is being explained: And this vital force is its lord, the lord of speech, i.e. of the Ṛces in the form of Bṛhatī. For it gives rise to speech, since the Ṛces are recited through the air which is propelled by the fire in the stomach. Or the vital force may be the lord of speech, being its protector, for speech is protected by the vital force, since a dead man has no power to utter words. Therefore this is also Bṛhaspati, i.e. the vital force is the self of the Ṛces.