Love as the Ground of Being

For Mirabai, devotion to Krishna was not sentiment but ontology—the fundamental nature of reality and her being. Applied to children's grief, this means recognizing that love isn't contingent on presence. The child who lost a parent was genuinely loved and shaped by that love; the relationship was real and transformative. This concept counters the isolation grief can create—the feeling of being uniquely separated from the living. Instead, the child understands themselves as fundamentally formed by love that exists beyond death. Their identity includes being "the child who was loved by this person," a fact that cannot be erased or diminished. This grounds them in something stable amid loss. Over time, this recognition helps young people integrate grief into identity without being consumed by it. They become custodians of a love story that continues to define and strengthen them.