Lila: Play Within the Sorrow

Lila is a Sanskrit concept meaning divine play or sport—the idea that the universe, even in its suffering, is also a kind of divine play. Mirabai's devotional practice contained both fierce longing and ecstatic joy, both tears and dancing. Lila teaches that grief and joy are not opposites; they can exist together. In fact, the deepest creative work often contains both: the gravity of loss alongside moments of tenderness, even humor, even lightness. When we are in the throes of grief, we may feel that we have no right to smile, that to laugh would be a betrayal. But lila invites us to trust that mourning and play can coexist. A poem about loss can be playful with language. A painting about sorrow can contain surprising color and form. This integration of playfulness within the serious work of grief often produces the most memorable and alive art. Mirabai understood this; her songs are serious about longing but also playful, even flirtarious in their address to Krishna. When we create from grief with lila, we allow ourselves moments of spontaneity, wordplay, experimentation—not to trivialize the loss but to honor the full spectrum of human experience. The work becomes more alive, more capacious, more true to the actual texture of living with grief rather than merely drowning in it.