Chitra Pournami is celebrated in a grand banner by Tamils or Tamil people. Chitra Pournami is celebrated as one of the 13 Tamil Festivals by Tamil people and celebrations and rituals remarking Chitra Pournami is carried out differently in different parts.
In lunar calendar the twelve months of the Hindu year are named after the particular star during whose ascendency the full moon of that month occurs. The Purnima of Chaitra month, ie the full moon day during the ascendency of the Chitra star is particularly sacred to the Chitra Guptas. A special worship is offered to the heavenly representatives of the God of death, and a holy sacrament(Prasad) prepared from spiced rice is offered. At the end of the ritualistic worship a fire worship is also done. When we perform this religious observance annually, these angels of the other world are greatly pleased and judge man’s actions with more sympathy.
Once the king of Gods – Indra, disobeyed his Guru and preceptor Brihaspati and Brihaspati resigns his task of advising Indra between the good and bad deeds. During the absence of Brihaspati Indra enjoyed doing bad deeds. Later the Guru resumed his duty due to compassion and then Indra was distressful for his doings. Indra wanted to know what he should do to expiate the wrongs he had done in his Guru’s absence. Brihaspati asked Indra to undertake a pilgrimage. While Indra was on pilgrimage, he suddenly felt the load of sins taken off his shoulders at a certain place (near Madurai in South India), and he discovered a Shiva Lingam there. He attributed the miracle to this Lingam and wanted to build a temple for it. He had this constructed immediately. Now he wished to perform the worship of the Lingam; the Lord Himself caused golden lotuses to appear in a nearby pond. Indra was greatly pleased and blessed. The day on which Indra thus worshipped the Lord was Chitra Purnima.
When you perform worship on the Chitra Pournami day, remember this story. If you have intense faith, if you feel with a contrite heart that you have committed sins on account of ignorance, if you pray with faith and devotion to the Lord to forgive your sins, if you resolve never to commit them in the future, and if you resolve to be obedient to your Guru and never to flout his counsel, then your sins will be forgiven. There is no doubt about this. This is the significance of the above story of Indra. Meditate on this story on Chitra Purnima day. The Hindu scriptures prescribe elaborate worship of the Chitra Guptas on this day. The Deity is invoked in an image or a kalasa (vessel filled with water) and then worshipped with all the rituals and formalities of the worship offered to God’s image. Meditate on Chitra Gupta, reciting the following verse:
Chitra guptam mahaa praajnam lekhaneepatra dhaarinam;
Chitra-ratnaambara-dhaararn madhyastham sarvadehinaam
On this day, Performing Sathyanarayana Vrath, Reciting Bhagya Sooktham, Sri Sooktham, Purusha Sooktham, Durga Chalisa or Saptha Sathi (Devi Mahatmiyam) are appropriate rituals, highly recommended for receiving great boons from Divine Kingdom. Performing Annadhanam on this day is highly beneficial.
Om Satya Devaya Namah!