Once Yudhishthira said to Bhishma Pitamah: "By your grace I have heard the dharma of many days. But what is the merit of Yama Dwitiya, and what does it bring? Tell me fully." Bhishma answered: "You have asked well. Listen to the story from the Puranas; whoever hears it is freed from every wrong."
"In the Satya Yuga, Brahma ji was born from the lotus that rises from the navel of Narayan, and at Narayan's word he made the whole world: the devas and asuras, the creatures of water and land, the rivers, mountains and trees, and Manu and Daksha Prajapati after them. To Dharmaraj, whose nature is dharma itself, Brahma ji gave charge over all the worlds: 'Give every being the fruit of its deeds, justly, as the Vedas lay down.'"
"Dharmaraj folded his hands and said: 'Lord, I will do as you command. But the beings of this creation are endless, and so are their deeds — done knowingly and unknowingly, by their own will or at another's word, some already borne, some still to come. How can I carry this alone? Give me a helper who knows dharma, who is just and wise and quick, skilled in writing, learned in the Vedas.'"
"Brahma ji promised to help, and sat in dhyana for a thousand years. When he opened his eyes, a man stood before him: dark in colour, lotus-eyed, his neck like a conch, his face like the moon, a pen and an inkpot in his hands — a great mind, a writer who could weigh dharma and adharma. 'Who are you?' Brahma ji asked. 'Lord, I do not know my mother or father; I have come forth from your own body. Give me a name, and tell me my work.'"
"Brahma ji smiled. 'You have come forth from my body, my kaya, and you dwell in it; so your name is Kayastha Chitragupta. You were born to stand beside Dharmaraj in his city and write down the good and the bad deeds of every living being.' And to Dharmaraj he said, 'Here is the writer I have given you, to keep the law of every deed in the world.' Then Brahma ji vanished."
"Chitragupta ji went to Kotinagar and gave himself to the puja of Chandika, the Devi of the blazing flame. He kept a vrat and praised her with his whole heart, as the one who holds up the world, as the light of every realm, as Saraswati in white. Pleased, the Devi granted him that he would be skilled in serving others, steady in his charge, and would live for countless years. Then he went with Dharmaraj to his city and took his seat beside him, where he is given puja to this day. He married Iravati, the daughter of the rishi Susharma, and Dakshina, the daughter of Manu, and had twelve sons, who went out over the earth."
"In that time a king named Saudas was born in Saurashtra. He was a great sinner: he took what belonged to others, coveted other men's wives, was proud and spoke ill of people, and from his birth to the end of his life he did not one act of dharma. One day he rode out with his army to hunt in a forest full of deer, and there he saw a brahmin keeping a vrat and giving puja to Chitragupta ji and Yamraj. It was Yama Dwitiya."
"'Maharaj, what are you doing?' the king asked. The brahmin told him of the Yama Dwitiya vrat. Hearing it, the king gave puja there and then, on that very day, the second of the bright half of Kartik, to Dharmaraj together with Chitragupta ji, with dhoop and a diya and what else he had. Then he went home. In time he forgot the vrat; when he remembered it, he kept it again."
"When at last Saudas died, the Yamadutas bound him tight and dragged him before Yamraj. Seeing the frightened king beaten by his messengers, Yamraj asked Chitragupta ji, 'What has this king done?' Chitragupta ji said: 'He has done a great many evil deeds. But by the turn of fate he kept one vrat: on the Yama Dwitiya of Kartik he gave you and me puja with gandh, chandan and flowers, kept to one meal, and stayed awake through the night. For this, Maharaj, he is not to be cast into naraka.' At Chitragupta ji's word Dharmaraj set him free, and by the power of the Yama Dwitiya vrat Saudas reached the good state."
Yudhishthira asked, "Pitamah, how should one give puja to Dharmaraj and Chitragupta ji on this day?" Bhishma said: "In a clean place set up a murti of Dharmaraj and of Chitragupta ji, invite them, and offer the five or the sixteen upacharas with faith — sweets and laddus, fruit, flowers, paan and dakshina — and bow again and again: 'Dharmaraj ji, namaskar to you; Chitragupta ji, namaskar to you; give children, give wealth, fulfil every wish.' Then give puja to the inkpot and the pen, with chandan, camphor, agar, naivedya and paan, and listen to the katha. Eat at your sister's house, and give her what you can. Whoever keeps Yama Dwitiya this way with devotion is blessed with children and gains what the heart desires."
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