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Rig Veda · 190 of 1027
Mandala 1: HYMN CXC. Bṛhaspati.
1.GLORIFY thou Bṛhaspati, the scatheless, who must be praised with hymns, sweet-tongued and mighty, To whom as leader of the song, resplendent, worthy of lauds, both Gods and mortals listen.
2.On him wait songs according to the season even as a stream of pious men set moving. Bṛhaspati—for he laid out the expanses—was, at the sacrifice, vast Mātariśvan.
3.The praise, the verse that offers adoration, may he bring forth, as the Sun sends his arms out, He who gives daily light through this God’s wisdom, strong as a dread wild beast, and inoffensive.
4.His song of praise pervades the earth and heaven: let the wise worshipper draw it, like a courser. These of Bṛhaspati, like hunters’ arrows, go to the skies that change their hue like serpents.
5.Those, God, who count thee as a worthless bullock, and, wealthy sinners, live on thee the Bounteous,— On fools like these no blessing thou bestowest: Bṛhaspati, thou punishest the spiteful.
6.Like a fair path is he, where grass is pleasant, though hard to win, a Friend beloved most early. Those who unharmed by enemies behold us, while they would make them bare, stood closely compassed.
7.He to whom songs of praise go forth like torrents, as rivers eddying under banks flow sea-ward— Bṛhaspati the wise, the eager, closely looks upon both, the waters and the vessel.
8.So hath Bṛhaspati, great, strong and mighty, the God exceeding powerful, been brought hither. May he thus lauded give us kine and horses. May we find strengthening food in full abundance.
Asked of Guide
Why do the hymns call Bṛhaspati both a leader of song and a dispenser of wealth?
The chapter presents Bṛhaspati as the divine power who composes and carries hymns—“leader of the song, resplendent”—so his role is the guiding intelligence that makes praise effective. That same guiding intelligence governs prosperity: the hymn asks that he “give us kine and horses” and punish the spiteful, linking righteous ritual speech to tangible blessings and social order.
This connection appears across Vedic thought where correct speech (ṛta through ritual) shapes outcomes; compare the Isha Upanishad and later Mimamsa reflections that treat mantras as causally potent. Here the poet treats Bṛhaspati’s song as both spiritual leadership and practical providence, a single faculty that orders cosmos and community.
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