Hinduism's Online Lexicon - A-z Dictionary

F

fable: Myth or legend. A story, usually with animal characters, meant to illustrate moral principles. See: mythology, Panchatantra.

faith: Trust or belief. Conviction. From the Latin fides, "trust." Faith in its broadest sense means "religion, dharma." More specifically, it is the essential element of religion--the belief in phenomena beyond the pale of the five senses, distinguishing it sharply from rationalism. Faith is established through intuitive or transcendent experience of an individual, study of scripture and hearing the testimony of the many wise rishis speaking out the same truths over thousands of years. This inner conviction is based in the divine sight of the third eye center, ajna chakra. Rightly founded, faith transcends reason, but does not conflict with reason. Faith also means confidence, as in the testimony and reputation of other people. The Sanskrit equivalent is shraddha. Synonyms include astikya, vishvasa, dharma and mati.

family life: See: grihastha ashrama, extended family, joint family.

far-seeing: Duradarshana. Having the power of clairvoyance, also known as divyadrishti, "divine sight." See: clairvoyance, siddhi.

fast: Abstaining from all or certain foods, as in observance of a vow or holy day. Hindus fast in various ways. A simple fast may consist of merely avoiding certain foods for a day or more, such as when vegetarians avoid tamasic or rajasic foods or when nonvegetarians abstain from fish, fowl and meats. A moderate fast would involve avoiding heavier foods, or taking only juices, teas and other liquids. Such fasts are sometimes observed only during the day, and a normal meal is permitted after sunset. Serious fasting, which is done under supervision, involves taking only water for a number of days and requires a cessation of most external activities.

fate: From the Latin fatum, "prophetic declaration, oracle." In Western thought, fate is the force or agency, God or other power, outside man's control, believed to determine the course of events before they occur. According to Hindu thought, man is not ruled by fate but shapes his own destiny by his actions, which have their concomitant reactions. The Hindu view acknowledges fate only in the limited sense that man is subject to his own past karmas, which are a driving force in each incarnation, seemingly out of his own control. But they can be mitigated by how he lives life, meaning how he faces and manages his prarabdha ("begun, undertaken") karmas and his kriyamana ("being made") karmas. See: adrishta, karma, destiny.

fellowship: Companionship. Mutual sharing of interests, beliefs or practice. A group of people with common interests and aspirations.

festival: A time of religious celebration and special observances. Festivals generally recur yearly, their dates varying slightly according to astrological calculations. They are characterized by acts of piety (elaborate pujas, penance, fasting, pilgrimage) and rejoicing (songs, dance, music, parades, storytelling and scriptural reading). See: sound, teradi.

fetch: Retrieve. To go get a thing and bring it back.

finesse: Ability to handle situations with skill and delicacy.

firewalking: The trance-inducing ceremonial practice of walking over a bed of smoldering, red-hot coals as an expression of faith and sometimes as a form of penance. Participants describe it as a euphoric experience in which no pain is felt and no burns received. Many lose body consciousness during the walk. Firewalking is associated with folk-shamanic Shaktism and is popular among Hindu communities inside and outside India. See: folk-shamanic, penance, Shaktism.

five acts of Siva: Panchakritya. Creation, preservation, destruction, veiling and revealing. See: Nataraja, Parameshvara.

flux: Continuous movement or change.

folk narratives: Community or village stories which are passed from generation to generation through verbal telling--often a mixture of fact and fiction, allegory and myth, legend and symbolism, conveying lessons about life, character and conduct. The most extensive and influential of India's folk narratives are the Puranas. While these stories are broadly deemed to be scriptural fact, this contemporary Hindu catechism accepts them as important mythology--stories meant to capture the imagination of the common peoples and to teach them moral living. See: fable, katha, mythology, Purana.

folk-shamanic: Of or related to a tribal or village tradition in which the mystic priest, shaman, plays a central role, wielding powers of magic and spirituality. Revered for his ability to influence and control nature and people, to cause good and bad things to happen, he is the intermediary between man and divine forces. The term shaman is from the Sanskrit shramana, "ascetic," akin to shram, "to exert." See: Shaktism, shamanism.

forbearance: Self-control; responding with patience and compassion, especially under provocation. Endurance; tolerance. See: yama-niyama.

formerly: At an earlier time; in the past.

formless: Philosophically, atattva, beyond the realm of form or substance. Used in attempting to describe the wondersome, indescribable Absolute, which is "timeless, formless and spaceless." God Siva has form and is formless. He is the immanent Pure Consciousness or pure form. He is the Personal Lord manifesting as innumerable forms; and He is the impersonal, transcendent Absolute beyond all form. Thus we know Siva in three perfections, two of form and one formless. This use of the term formless does not mean amorphous, which implies a form that is vague or changing. Rather, it is the absence of substance, sometimes thought of as a void, an emptiness beyond existence from which comes the fullness of everything. In describing the Self as formless, the words timeless and spaceless are given also to fully indicate this totally transcendent noncondition. See: atattva, Parasiva, Satchidananda, void.

fortress: A fortified place; a fort.

foster: To help grow or develop.

fountainhead: A spring that is the source of a stream. The source of anything.

fruition: The bearing of fruit. The coming to fulfillment of something that has been awaited or worked for.

funeral rites: See: cremation, bone-gathering, samskaras of later life.