Chitragupta is a Hindu god responsible for tracking people’s lives to determine their fate after death. He was born directly from Lord Brahma’s body and is associated with pen and paper, justice, peace, literacy, and knowledge. A puja is performed in his honor.
Chitragupta is a god in Hindu mythology, responsible for tracking people through their lives to determine where they go after death. He is the son of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, and holds a quite special place in the Hindu pantheon due to the order of his birth. An important puja, or Hindu religious ritual, is done in Chitragupta.
Lord Brahma had many sons and daughters in various mythical structures, including many seers born of his mind, such as Vashishta, Narada and Atri, and many sons born of his body, such as Dharma, Delusion, Lust, Death and Bharata. . The story of Chitragupta’s birth is told in different ways, but he is almost always portrayed differently from other sons of Lord Brahma, and a common thread is that he was born directly from Lord Brahma’s body.
In a popular version of the creation myth of Chitragupta, Lord Brahma is said to have handed over the land of the dead to the god Yama, also known as Dharamraj or Yamraj. Yama sometimes got confused when dead souls came to him, and occasionally sent the wrong souls to heaven or hell. Lord Brahma ordered him to keep track of all better, and Yama declared that he could not reasonably be expected to keep track of the many people born of the eighty-four different life forms in the three worlds.
Lord Brahma, determined to solve this problem for Yama, sat in meditation for many thousands of years. Finally he opened his eyes and before him was a man with a pen and paper. Since Chitragupta was born from the body of Lord Brahma, or kaya in Sanskrit, Brahma declared that his children would forever be known as Kayasthas. Because he was first conceived in the mind of Brahma, or chitra, and then made whole in secret, or gupta, away from the other gods, he was called Chitragupta.
Chitragupta is also sometimes referred to as the first man to use letters, and is thus hailed in the Garud Puran. He is known to be incredibly meticulous and with pen and paper he keeps track of every action of every sentient life form, building a record of them over their lifetime so that when they die their soul’s fate can easily be determined. These perfect and complete records are referred to in mystical traditions as the Akashic records and because they contain the actions of every person from birth to death, they can be said to contain every action taken in the universe.
Items associated with Chitragupta in his puja include pen and paper, ink, honey, betel nut, matches, mustard, sugar, sandalwood, and incense. A puja is often performed to Chitragupta in reverence for the four virtues he is seen to embody: justice, peace, literacy and knowledge. Part of the Chitragupta puja also includes writing down how much money you make in your household and how much you need to earn to survive the next year, while making offerings of turmeric, flowers and vermilion.
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