Prema as Radical Presence

In bhakti tradition, prema is love without expectation or condition—a force that transcends time and mortality. Mirabai sang to Krishna knowing separation was inevitable, yet her devotion remained ecstatic and present. For anticipatory grief, prema offers a paradox: by loving someone completely *as they are now*, we stop rehearsing their absence. This is not denial but radical acceptance of impermanence. The grief we anticipate often stems from imagining a future without them; prema collapses that timeline into the eternal present. When you practice prema—loving without grasping, without preparing for loss—you reclaim the time you have. Mirabai's life demonstrates that devotion deepens not when we secure permanence, but when we surrender to it.