Yearning as Spiritual Practice

Mirabai's poetry is saturated with yearning. She yearns for Krishna; the ache of his absence is the substance of her devotion. Modern culture typically treats yearning as a problem—something to overcome through closure, moving on, or finding substitutes. But Mirabai models yearning as itself a spiritual practice, a way of maintaining relationship with what is absent. In collective grief, we're often pressured toward premature closure: memorial services should provide closure, media cycles move on, we're expected to return to normal. But authentic grief includes periods of acute yearning—the ache of missing someone who mattered. Mirabai teaches that this yearning is not dysfunction; it's a profound spiritual capacity. Honoring collective grief means creating space for yearning, especially in our achievement-oriented, forward-moving culture. The practice of yearning keeps the person present in absence, maintains their significance, honors that something irreplaceable has been lost. This yearning, practiced collectively, becomes a form of communion with the lost and with each other in shared recognition of what we cannot recover.