Longing as Spiritual Practice

Mirabai lived in longing for Krishna—a yearning that became her spiritual practice and the engine of her poetry and devotion. Rather than viewing longing as weakness or something to cure, she made it sacred work. In collective grief, longing emerges when we feel the absence of someone or something irreplaceable: a leader, an artist, an era, a sense of safety. Rather than rushing to move past this longing, Mirabai's model suggests making it a practice. What emerges when we sit with longing rather than resist it? What do we learn about what we valued? How does longing connect us to others who feel the same absence? By treating longing as spiritual practice, we transform raw grief into something intentional and generative. This isn't dwelling in pain but consciously inhabiting it, allowing it to open us, soften us, and reveal what we love most deeply. Collective longing, honored rather than suppressed, becomes a form of group meditation where communities process loss together and discover shared values through what they grieve.