Longing as Spiritual Practice

Mirabai's entire spiritual path was structured around viraha—the ache of separation from the beloved. This longing wasn't a failure to achieve enlightenment but enlightenment itself. In collective grief, we often feel ashamed of our longing for public figures: Isn't it parasocial? Isn't it misdirected? Bhakti reframes this. Longing keeps the heart alive and awake. When we ache for a dead activist, a martyred artist, a lost leader, that ache testifies to our capacity for love and our hunger for justice. Instead of medicating it away, we can practice with it. How does this longing move me? What does it ask of me? The examined heart honors its own yearning as valid data, not pathology. This transforms collective grief from something to overcome into a spiritual discipline that deepens our humanity.