Going beyond grief

By bringing to light how some individuals have undergone and overcome grief, Jamuna Rangachari assures us that we are not alone in our loss and sorrow. And all the more so because the Divine is always with us

- Jamuna Rangachari

Grief is something all of us encounter at some stage or the other in our lives. It is a state of mind in which our whole being feels sorrow and suffering, for losing something or someone we dearly loved or resonated with. We become inconsolable, unable to face the catastrophe of our lives as nothing seems to make us believe that one day we will overcome this pain.

However, often we do not have the luxury to plunge ourselves in grief. We have people who are dependent on us, and we have to pull ourselves out of our sorrow to attend to their and our everyday needs.

Is there a method which can help us mitigate our suffering or give us emotional strength at a time when we lack it the most?

There’s no single right way to cope with grief, but there are methods that work for some people.

When dealing with grief and loss, it can be difficult to know whose advice to trust, and many people might try and tell you what worked for them. Ultimately, when it comes to bereavement, everyone is different and there’s no prescription or a one-size-fits-all solution. In this article we will study the mechanism different people adopted to cope with this aspect of life.

Narasimhan Gopalan (called Sim) was happily married to Bharathi Ramarao and had two children. Both of them were in their forties and lived in the US. Suddenly, Bharathi was afflicted with cancer. Sim had, of course, never imagined that his charmed life would be unexpectedly struck with this challenge. He did not find it easy at all and shares, “The day Bharathi was diagnosed, I was devastated. It was Bharathi who conveyed me the news in a casual tone. She did not want me to be shattered. Ten months of misery followed, and she finally attained peace on 14 July 2011.”