Hari-Naam: Speaking the Name

Mirabai devoted herself to speaking and singing the name of Krishna, a practice (Hari-Naam) that became her anchor to the divine and her greatest source of solace. The repetition of a beloved's name—whether divine or human—has power beyond sentiment. It is an act of testimony, of refusal to let them become abstract. In anticipatory grief, speaking the name of the dying person aloud—in conversation, in prayer, in address—keeps them vivid and particular. Rather than the generic language of loss ('the patient,' 'the dying'), we say their name: full, specific, irreplaceable. This practice rooted Mirabai when everything else felt unstable. For those experiencing anticipatory grief, naming the person repeatedly—in journals, in conversations with others, in quiet address—becomes a spiritual anchor. It affirms their continued existence while they live, and honors the particular love we bear toward them, not toward loss itself.