~ Vasudeva’s ‘Amor Fati‘ Moment ~ (Credits: HG Hari Parshad prabhu)
Most individuals in the world who take to religion or God are often looking for something in exchange. After a religious institution designates them as God’s chosen ones, they expect God to bend the rules of the universe in their favor. Succinctly put, they expect God to give them an ego massage by fulfilling their desires in exchange for the prayers and eulogies that they send up in the sky.
But why should God reciprocate with such narcissists? He understands perfectly that this never-ending cycle of “you fulfill my desires and I will placate your ego” is a vicious one and it can never lead to a truly loving eternal relationship. God is therefore very much interested in devotees who have embraced “amor fati” or “the love of fate irrespective of how it turns out”.
The devotee who has embraced “amor fati” is the one who sees all occurrences in life – good, bad as well as neutral, as arrangements of God and does not expect God to bend the rules of the universe in his favor. Foolish, business-minded materialists may laugh at this proposition and say, “Oh what use is a God who doesn’t even agree to favor his devotee?” but such materialists do not understand that the relationship was never about any gains or profits in the first place. The devotee does not see relationships as sophisticated mechanisms for achieving the barter of the fulfillment of each other’s desires.
During the Mahābharata war, all the sons of the Pāṇdavas were slaughtered in their sleep by Aśvatthāmā, and Krishna (the Supreme Lord) did nothing to prevent it even though he was personally present on the battlefield. On the other hand, Parīkṣit was supposed to be killed by a brahmāstrasent by that same Aśvatthāmā, but Krishna intervened and saved him by entering into the womb of Parīkṣit’s mother. The Pāṇdavas never asked him why he chose to ignore their sons but save their grandson. They indeed had fully embraced the philosophy of amor fati, which is the hallmark of a true devotee.
Krishna too expects his devotee to be anapekṣaḥ (Gītā 12.16) or “expectation-less”. This does not mean that as God, he will never fulfill any of his devotee’s desires. It only means that he will retain complete freedom in deciding which desires of his devotee he wishes to fulfill.
At the same time, the mature devotees do not become dejected towards their essential duties simply because they have uncertainty regarding the will of God. The devotee’s amor fati attitude is summed up in the following sentence — “I will do my best. God will give me a favorable or unfavorable result. I will happily accept whatever he gives me and I will unconditionally love him.”
God’s own father Vasudeva once ended up in an extremely distressful situation. On the day of his marriage, Vasudeva’s brother-in-law Kaṃsa was informed by a voice in the sky that his death would occur at the hands of Vasudeva’s eighth son. The ruffian that he was, Kaṃsa immediately took out his sword and prepared to slaughter his own sister Devakī on her wedding day.
Vasudeva was utterly powerless in front of Kaṃsa, but Vasudeva knew that there was still one thing that he could do to save his wife Devakī. He could use his logic, argumentation and convincing skills to try to convince Kaṃsa, even though Kaṃsa was a ruffian of the highest order and would most likely not consider Vasudeva’s plea.
Vasudeva tried his best, and surprisingly Kaṃsa was convinced by Vasudeva’s arguments. Kaṃsa spared his sister Devakī’s life on the condition that Vasudeva bring his eighth son to Kaṃsa so that Kaṃsa could kill that son. The devotee poet Harisūri says at this point (Bhakti-rasāyanam by Śrī Harisūri):
[Sing like brahma-saṃhitā]
naitatkadācidapisambhavatītimatvā
kāryenajātuviduṣaivamudāsitavyam
yatnekṛte sati hareḥkṛpayāsu-siddhyaty–
etatsphuṭaṁsu-phalakevasudeva-kṛtye
Translation: A learned person should never become dejected in his duty, thinking “Oh this is impossible to achieve”. Having put diligent efforts, the impossible becomes possible by the mercy of Lord Hari, and this is the clear writing on the wall for everyone, after Vasudeva achieved success [in convincing the inconvincible Kaṃsa].
