Chitragupta Jayanti is not only the best festival for the Kayastha community but apart from this, people of other communities celebrate it with great devotion. In childhood, the biggest attraction of this day for us was that on this day we used to get leave from studies. It is a belief that no Kayastha can touch a pen or pen for 24 hours on the day of Chitragupta Puja. That period is called the “Pareva Kaal ”. All over the world, Kayasthas keep the pen after the Diwali puja and then picks it up only after the pen-await puja after Yamdwitiya.
There is a very interesting mythological story about it which is related to Ramayana.
It is believed that due to a mistake of Shri Ram, Chitraguptji had put down his pen. This story is of the time when Shri Ram returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile after killing Ravana. Then Bharat, who was running the kingdom till then by placing his son-in-law on the throne, announced the coronation of Shri Ram.
Shri Ram could not see Chitragupta ji anywhere
For his coronation, Bharat asked Vice Chancellor Vashishtha to send invitations to all the gods and goddesses to attend the coronation of Shri Ram. After handing over this task to him, he started preparing for the coronation. All the gods came for the coronation ceremony but Shri Ram could not see Chitragupta ji anywhere. When he asked Guru Vashishtha about this, he found out from his disciples who had gone to Chitragupta Maharaj with the invitation.
This happened for the first time that his continuously moving pen stopped
After investigation, it was found that his disciples had not even sent the invitation to Chitragupta ji. When Chitragupta ji came to know about this, he became angry and put down the pen which was used to keep track of the karmas. This happened for the first time that his continuously moving pen stopped. When all the gods and goddesses returned from the coronation, they found that all the work of heaven and hell had stopped. Apart from this, all the creatures who were dying every day also stopped between heaven and hell. Since there was no account of anyone, they were not able to understand whether they were going to heaven or hell. An imbalance was created in the entire creation.
Shir Ram apologized and praised Chitragupta ji
When the gods came to know about this, they prayed to Shri Ram to pacify Chitragupta in some way. Then Shri Ram reached the Shri Dharma Hari temple established in Ayodhya along with Sita, his younger brothers, and Maharishi Vashishtha, and there they praised Chitragupta Maharaj and apologized. It is believed that this temple was founded by Shri Hari Vishnu himself and it is also said that it is mandatory for all the pilgrims coming to Ayodhya to visit Shri Dharma Temple, otherwise, they do not get the virtue of this visit.
Start of Pareva Kaal
Pleased with the worship of Shri Ram, Chitragupta Maharaj finally picked up his pen again after 8 prahar (24 hours) and started recording the deeds of the living beings again due to which the balance of the universe was restored. Since then, Kayasthas do not touch pen and ink for 24 hours on the day of Chitragupta Puja after Diwali. Not only this, only Kayasthas have the right to take donations from Brahmins, who are considered to be the first ones to take donations.