A Day For Accountant-chitra Paurnami

International Accounting Day or International
Accountant’s Day is celebrated all around the
world every year to give recognition to
accountants who do highly challenging and
stressful job that very few people want to
do.In most parts of the world, November 10 is
considered as an official International
Accounting Day.
Since, most of the companies are going
global, the accountants have to deal with day to
day challenges like, improving transparency,
accountability, governance, harmonization, and
adding value to facilitate the smooth running of
business operations.
Paper work is the largest overhead expense in
any organization and active files grow min at
the rate of 20%. Managers spend nearly 15% of
working hrs in tracing misfiled,mislabelled,
untracked and lost information.
Every year International Archieves'Day in
celebrated on 9th June.
While celebrations of these days are of very
recent origin, we have been celebrating this
Accountant's Day in India for ages, that is on
Chaitra Paurnami Day, to fall on 29th Apr this
year.
According to the Vedic scriptures, the souls of
men after death receive rewards and
punishments according to their sins and virtues,
and hence it is believed that good and bad
deeds of men are not destroyed. The souls of
men after death , with imprints of good and bad
deeds go to Yamapuri where such
records are maintained by the efficient
Accountant Chithra Guptha..


Chithra Guptha aliasChittira Puttiranaar, is
the Master Record
Keeper of our sins and gains.Pooja with
sincerity is bound to increase your stockpile
of good deeds for Judgement Day.
The legend goes that
Chitra Guptha was created out of sheer
necessity by Brahma, who also created the
three worlds. Brahma handed over the
legions of the dead to Yama Dharma Raja,
as also the tedious task of punishing or
rewarding the souls of people, based on
their actions in life. Yama, as every
beginner,
took up the task with much enthusiasm,
little realising the risks involved in
his unenviable
job. Times passed, and mistakes began to
occur. He took the lives of young ones and
allowed the oldies to live on, he banished
the innocent to hell and welcomed the
rogues into heaven, and very soon, started
receiving
protests. Having no other go, he did what
every confused employee does, report to the
Boss. He rushed to Satyaloka and stood
before Brahma, and poured out his tale of
tragedy. Brahma sat deep in thought, and
looked at him. “I have but one thing to say,
lets go to Shiva. He must have a way out.”
And together, they left to Kailasha,. Brahma
and Yama bowed low before Shiva-Parvathi
and explained the reason for their visit.
Brahma prayed, “Parameshwara, Yama has
been having troubles in keeping the Akashic
records. He has been confused with time
and
has meted out the wrong judgement to the
wrong persons and species. The whole of
creation now lives in the peril of wrong
judgement at the end of their respective
times. You only have to show us a way out
of
this Prabho”.
Shiva gave a glance at Parvathi, who with
the
slightest of nods, took up a golden slate and
with a chalk drew a handsome man, richly
adorned with jewels and gems. Shiva leaned
closer to Parvathi and bent down towards
the slate. Gently, he blew away the chalk
dust to clear up the picture.
Lo and Behold, before them stood a man, the
very replica of the picture on the slate. He held a stylus in one hand and a thick bundle of palm leaves in the other. Shiva had indeed blown the “Air of Life”, Praana Vaayu, into the picture and given him life. Shiva nodded at his own creation, and said, “My Son, since you were born out of a picture drawn by Shakthi and breathed to life by me, you will be henceforth called as Chitragupta (Chitra-Picture, Gupta- hidden) Go along with Yama and help him maintain the records of all human activities. At the end of one’s life, it is based on your advice that Yama will offer him the fruit of his actions. You will be respected as an equal to Yama himself. Be loyal, just and be a shining example to all of mankind as the perfect being. My blessings ”
Chitragupta bowed low to his parents and
with all humility answered, “Your wish will
be
my command.” With that he left to
Yamaloka.
Chitragupta was the best thing that
happened to Yamaloka. He was very
rigorous
and maintained a strict record of the doings
of every human and god. Nothing escaped
his sharp eye. In the process of maintaining
these complicated records Chitragupta gave
mankind one of the best gifts ever, the gift
of
a scripted language. Chitragupta is thought
to be the person who introduced the very
first scripts.
There is also another legend.
Once Indra and Indrani, desirous of a
progeny, took a long penance unto Shiva.
Maheshwara, happy with their prayers then
ordered Chitragupta himself to be re-born to
Indrani. Chitragupta, however, immediately
looked at his bunch of palm leaves and told
Eshwara, “My lord, Indrani is not destined to
have a child. It would be totally improper for
me, the keeper of all just records and the
assistant to Yama to go against fate and
change her destiny. I am sorry to say this
but
Indrani having a child can just not happen.”
Shiva marvelled at the level of Chitragupta’s knowledge, but he still wanted Indra’s wish to be fulfilled. An idea formed in his mind and he sent for the divine cow, Kamadhenu. Kamadhenu arrived, shining with divine splendour. She came and bowed before Shiva and Chitragupta and stood waiting for her commands. Shiva smiled at her, “Chitragupta, there has been no purer life than Kamadhenu. Will you be born to her?”, he questioned Chitragupta. Chitragupta beamed back, “It would be a honour for me to have her as my mother, my lord.” Shiva then turned back to Kamadhenu and told her, “Gomaatha, go to Indra’s palace and be Indrani’s pet. Chitragupta will be born to you on an auspicious day. Indra’s palace too will soon echo with the cries of a baby.”
Kamadhenu obediently took shelter in
Indra’s palace. Indrani was delighted to have
the divine cow and treated her with much
respect and love. Days passed, and then
Kamadhenu became pregnant with the
power of Chitragupta. Indrani was
absolutely
ecstatic and did all that she could to make
the cow as comfortable as possible. Then,
on one fine day in the month of Chithirai,
when Chandra was gleaming at his fullest
extent, and the star of Chitra was on the
rise,
Kamadhenu gave birth to a beautiful young
boy. Chitragupta was born in the palace of
Indra, to relieve him of his sadness of being
childless. Joy flowed through the palace as
Indrani lifted up the child and with tears
streaming down her cheeks, named him
Chitragupta all over again.
It is this birth of Chitragupta that is widely
celebrated in Tamil Nadu on Chitra
Pournami.

The Chitra Pournami Vratha is
believed to relieve everyone of their sins
and problems, just like Chitragupta had
alleviated the sadness of Indra and Indrani.

Chitragupta Pooja, done once a year in
Chithrai on Pournami day amidst much
ritualistic actions and vedic chanting.
The glory of Chitragupta pooja is extolled in
Garuda Purana , where much detail is given
to the job of Chitragupta and his possible
judgements to the souls.
In many houses this is celebrated on the first day
of Chithirai month.Chitra Guptha is stated to enter the house
through Kolam, Kalasha and then leave the house after blessing the inmates.
an important
part of the vratha.
There are many temples for Chitra Guptha
all
over India.
The temple of Chitragupta in Kanchi sees
huge crowds on that day. It is one of the
very
few temples dedicated to Chitragupta in
India and the only one in Tamil Nadu. This
temple was built by a king named Senni, one
of the rulers of Kanchi. Kanchi is often
highly extolled as “Satyavratha Kshetra”,
where the people strictly observe the vow of
speaking nothing but the truth. What better
place for the upholder of truth to establish
his presence?
Here Chitragupta gives darshan with his wife
Karnaambikai. Also known as Karnaki, she
bore him eight sons who are considered to
be the forefathers of the Karuneegar
community of Karnataka. In the sanctum,
Chitragupta is in a standing posture with his
book and a writing nail, a sign of ever
watchfullness over everyone. On the day of
Chitra Pournami, a grand wedding is held at
the temple between Chitragupta and Karnaki.
Thousands flock to attend the wedding and
take part in the special poojas held at the
temple.


There appears to be a scientific reason as to
why Chithra paurnami was chosen and not
any other Full Moon Day.
In the month of Chithirai, the Sun is in
exalted position( uchcham) close to the
earth

and moon is aligned with the bright star'
Chithira'in the constellation of LIBRA.
Libra is the sign that seeks balance.Your
mind is prepared to balance thoughts
properly and you are empowered to make
karmic choices by way of worshipping
Chitra
Gupta, the divine accountant.

Whether all these stories appeal to
reasoning or not, it is an undeniable fact
some of our sufferings are beyond our
comprehension and we feel some what
relieved if someone takes the initiative of
wiping of our sins automatically or by
motivating us to do good things like
charities to ward off the evils.All is well that
ends well.

Jayasala 42