Theism-According to the Harper Collins Dictionary of Philosophy, p. 120, the philosophy of theism in most interpretations is, God is partly immanent in the universe and partly transcendent. In essence, this definition is the Vedic philosophy of the Supreme Person. As stated in Purusa-sukta (Rg-Veda 10.90.4): With three-fourths of Himself, the Purusa ascended; the other fourth was born here. From here on all sides He moved, toward the living and the non-living. Again and again in the Vedic literatures we find references to tripada-vibhūti and ekapada-vibhūti, the three-fourths of the Lord's splendor displayed as the spiritual world, and the one-fourth by which He pervades the material world. About the material manifestation, Lord Krsna says in Bg. 10.41: yad yad vibhūtimat sattvam srimad ūrjitam eva va tat tad evavagaccha tvam mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam. Know that all these opulent, beautiful and glorious creations are born from a part of My total splendor. Because they oppose theism, the theories of deism, monism, pantheism and dualism are actually atheism. Deism separates God completely from His material creation. Monism renders God partless. Pantheism confines Him to the material universe. And dualism divides creation against Him, placing part of it in the hands of a rival. Even major religious traditions like Christianity are influenced by deism and dualism. The English natural theologian Robert Boyle (1627-1691) expressed open contempt for theism as a doctrine of infidels. When he drew up his last will and testament, he bequeathed fifty pounds per annum for ever, or at least for a considerable number of years in order to institute a series of lectures for proving the Christian Religion, against notorious Infidels, viz. Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans. Monotheism and panentheism are synonyms for theism. Monotheism means belief in one God. In the Vedic religion, there is only one God, though He empowers servants who act as demigods on His command. These demigods are worshiped as God only by foolish people. Panentheism teaches that all things are imbued with God's presence, because all things are in God. God is more than all there is. He is all-conscious and the supreme unifying factor. See Atheism. Tri-loka-The Sanskrit term tri-loka is often found in Vedic scriptures. Tri-loka means three worlds. The universe is divided into three worlds, or realms of consciousness: bhūr, bhuvaḥ and svaḥ (the gross region, the subtle region and the celestial region). In Svargaloka or the celestial heaven, superhuman beings called demigods (devatas) exist, enjoying a life that in human terms is almost unimaginable. In the subtle region exist ghosts and elemental beings. And in the gross or earthly realm exist human beings and other creatures with tissue-bodies, including the animals and plants. There is also a subterranean region where powerful demons reside. And there is a region known as naraka, hell. As explained in Bg. 3.27, the souls within these regions of material consciousness wrongly identify themselves as the doers of physical and mental activities that are actually carried out by three modes of material nature. This wrong identification is called ahahkara, or false ego, the basis of our entanglement in material existence. See Demigods, Svarga. Time-In his purport of SB 3.10.11, Srila Prabhupada writes as follows about time: The impersonal time factor is the background of the material manifestation as the instrument of the Supreme Lord. It is the ingredient of assistance offered to material nature. No one knows where time began and where it ends, and it is time only which can keep a record of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material manifestation. This time factor is the material cause of creation and is therefore a self expansion of the Personality of Godhead. Time is considered the impersonal feature of the Lord. The time factor is also explained by modern men in various ways. Some accept it almost as it is explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. For example, in Hebrew literature time is accepted, in the same spirit, as a representation of God. It is stated therein: God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets... Metaphysically, time is distinguished as absolute and real. Absolute time is continuous and is unaffected by the speed or slowness of material things. Time is astronomically and mathematically calculated in relation to the speed, change and life of a particular object. Factually, however, time has nothing to do with the relativities of things; rather, everything is shaped and calculated in terms of the facility offered by time. Time is the basic measurement of the activity of our senses, by which we calculate past, present and future; but in factual calculation, time has no beginning and no end. Canakya Panḍita says that even a slight fraction of time cannot be purchased with millions of dollars, and therefore even a moment of time lost without profit must be calculated as the greatest loss in life. Time is not subject to any form of psychology, nor are the moments objective realities in themselves, but they are dependent on particular experiences.