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.

(See also: Fast, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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.

(See also: Festival, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

See: mythology, Panchatantra.

(See also: Fable, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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.

(See also: Faith, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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.

(See also: Fate, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

(See also: Fellowship, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

(See also: Fetch, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

finesse: Ability to handle situations with skill and delicacy.

(See also: Finesse, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

(See also: Fountainhead, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

(See also: Fruition, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

evoke: To call forth; to conjure up; to summon, as to summon a Mahadeva, a God.

See: puja, yajna.

(See also: Evoke, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

flux: Continuous movement or change.

(See also: Flux, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

See: yama-niyama.

(See also: Forbearance, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

formerly: At an earlier time; in the past.

(See also: Formerly, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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.

(See also: Formless, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

fortress: A fortified place; a fort.

(See also: Fortress, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

foster: To help grow or develop.

(See also: Foster, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

family life:

See: grihastha ashrama, extended family, joint family.

(See also: Family life:, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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

See: clairvoyance, siddhi.

(See also: Far-seeing, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)