"Good Grief"?: Re-examining the Mahābhārata critique of grieving in light of theologies of pastoral care and the Kṛṣṇa of the Bhāgavata

In key episodes of the Mahābhārata and well known verses of the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa offers an apparent criticism of grieving, often presenting "grief" as weakness, distraction, or pitfall, and chiding his interlocutors--and, ostensibly, devotees reading the texts--to rise above it. Taken at face value, these references might lead one to assume that Hinduism adopts a categorically anti-grief stance. But is this an accurate or complete understanding? In this paper, I seek to interrogate that assumption in three ways. First, I draw on theologies of pastoral care which position grief as a healthy and important, if not indispensable, part of the healing process. I seek to question whether the type of grief spoken of by these theologies is indeed the same as the śoka (शोक) being criticized in the Mahābhārata and Gītā, or whether something might be getting lost in translation. Second, I hope to reframe the Mahābhārata references as contextual, situational, and pedagogical-- part of a strategy that is carefully deployed to stir one out of complacency or lethargy when action is warranted.