Ecstatic Union vs. Anxious Merging

Mirabai's descriptions of union with Krishna overflow with ecstasy and delight; she dances, she sings, she is alive. This differs fundamentally from codependent merging, which arrives with anxiety, depletion, and the erasure of self. Ecstatic union expands you; anxious merging contracts and exhausts you. In bhakti practice, union happens through devotion, not through managing someone else's emotional state. Mirabai doesn't disappear into Krishna; she becomes more fully herself through the intensity of her love. Codependents often confuse intensity with ecstasy, mistaking the frantic energy of trying to control a relationship for the aliveness of genuine connection. This concept invites discernment: Does your love feel freeing or imprisoning? Do you expand or diminish? Are you more yourself or less? Ecstatic union leaves you more alive; codependent merging leaves you hollow.