But they can be mitigated by how he lives life...

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: hip. 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.