SB 5.17

1. WBN on the glories of Mother Ganga. Draw her 4 paths. (SB.5.17.1-10)

1. Touching the water of the Ganga purifies all living entities internally( freedom from sins and inner purification) and externally(protection and freedom from disease)
2. Knowing it to be the water that touched that touched the Lord's Lotus Feet Dhruva Maharaja and the sapta rsis accept the water on their head with great devotion.
3. Since they are bhaktas and not impersonalists the sapta rsis neglect all other means of perfection and constantly meditating on the Lord they accept the Ganges water on their head

Her paths:

2. WBN on the 8 heavenly Varshas. (SB.5.17.11-15)

The eight heanevly varsas are known as Bhauma Svarga

1. People live long and youthful lives there
1. Their bodies are extremely trong like 10000 elephants and sturdy like thunderbolts
2. Women only conceive in the last year of their lives
3. They enjoy sense pleasure without tribulations
2. The place is very beautiful filled with gardens, flowers, hermitages, lakes and many birds
3. The demigods there enjoy with their wives 
4. The Lord Narayana expands Himself and resides in each of these varsas to remain near His devotees to give them mercy and accept their service.

3. Write the flow of Lord Siva's prayers to Lord Sankarshan. Quote 5.17.18 bhaje bhajanyäraëa… Give salient points from 19P. (SB.5.17.16 -24)

Lord Siva worships Lord Sankarasana knowing Him to be the original cause of his own existence. 

He glorifes Him by sayin :

1. Reservoir of all transcendental qualities
2. Unlimited
3. Unfathomable
4. Lotus Feet protect devotees from all dangers
5. Highest shelter of six opulencesManifests his different forms for the satisfaction of his devotees
6. Stops the repetition of borth and death, origin of material creation
7. Not affected by material world
8. But we are completely affected and therefore we must worhsip the Lord so we can conquer the senses
9. Lord Remains unagitatede.g Naga patnis)
10. Does creation, maintainence, and destruction. He is unlimited and holds the universes on His hoods
11. He is the greatest , greater than Siva and Brahma and all the demigods
12. We cannot understand Him because we are covered by Maya. Without being favored by him we cannot get out of Maya nor understand the Lord.

SB 5.16

1. Write the importance of focusing one’s mind on the Lord’s external energy.SB 5.16.1-3

Since we are in conditional life constantly associated with matter and also our minds are difficult to focus on. When we learn how to see everything around us in relation with Vishnu it purifies our consciousness as we stop seeing things from an exploitative tendency to a way we can worship things as they are all connected to Vishnu.

When we understand the creation of the cosmos, the planets, the bhu mandal we realize how everything is connected to the Lord. Thus having seeing the connection with Krishna our mind shifts from exploitation to reverence and thus to mode of goodness.

We also understand how all the creation of things of material enjoyment have come from the mode of ignorance ( 2 nd canto) and if we further associate with those things to enjoy we will remain in ignorance. Rather we learn the art of seeing the connection with Krishna and using in Krishna's service and not for our own sense gratification.

2. Draw and mark with details the following: 

(i) Structure of Jambhudvipa and its Varshas

(ii) Ilavrta-varsa and the details surrounding Mt. Sumeru,

(iii) The demigod abodes on top of Mt.Sumeru.

3. WBN on the people of Kali-yuga (SB.5.16.20-21P).

1. People in Kali Yuga like ourselves feel very proud of our existence and material wealth. Those with more money think they are living a superior form of life when they compare themselves with the have nots.
2. However planetary systems there is so much opulence- mud on banks of jambu river mixes with jambu river and due to the reaction of sunlight on it, large quantities of gold are produced.However in Kali Yuga produce huge quantities of gold.
3. But people in Kali Yuga think that their opulence is in plastic - plastic money, jewels and vessels instead of gold currency, gold jewels and gold vessels.
4. Lured by a promising life in heavenly planets they want to be promoted after death or achieve the same through space missions, but they can never do so.
5. Pure devotees do not want any of this, they only want the humble service of the Lord.

The four internal subtle senses and their relationship

From Text SB 3.26.14

mano buddhir ahaṅkāraś  cittam ity antar-ātmakam
caturdhā lakṣyate bhedo  vṛttyā lakṣaṇa-rūpayā

Word for word: 

manaḥ — the mind; buddhiḥ — intelligence; ahaṅkāraḥ — ego; cittam — consciousness; iti — thus; antaḥ-ātmakam — the internal, subtle senses; catuḥ-dhā — having four aspects; lakṣyate — is observed; bhedaḥ — the distinction; vṛttyā — by their functions; lakṣaṇa-rūpayā — representing different characteristics.

Translation: 

The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. Distinctions between them can be made only by different functions, since they represent different characteristics.

The four internal subtle senses as explained in Text 14 are:

1. citta - a sense of awareness or consciousness
2. ahankara- a false sense of self ,false ego
3. manah- the accepting and rejecting function known as the mind
4. buddhih- the discriminating function known as the intelligence

False ego is the cause of the material creation

From Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 2.25.25

"The five elements, namely sky, air, fire, water and earth, are all but different qualities of the darkness of false ego. This means that the false ego in the sum total form of mahat-tattva is generated from the marginal potency of the Lord, and due to this false ego of lording it over the material creation, ingredients are generated for the false enjoyment of the living being. The living being is practically the dominating factor over the material elements as the enjoyer, though the background is the Supreme Lord. Factually, save and except the Lord, no one can be called the enjoyer, but the living entity falsely desires to become the enjoyer. This is the origin of false ego. When the bewildered living being desires this, the shadow elements are generated by the will of the Lord, and the living entities are allowed to run after them as after a phantasmagoria."

Thus:

• With the glance of Mahavishnu which comprises of the living entities, time and karma the agitation in the mahat tattva starts as we read in this post From Pradhana to Mahat Tattva - Characteristics, differences and Transformation.

• Further transformation occurs because of the presence of the false ego- As Srila Prabhupada explains in this purport that "This means that the false ego in the sum total form of mahat-tattva is generated from the marginal potency of the Lord, and due to this false ego of lording it over the material creation, ingredients are generated for the false enjoyment of the living being."

• Thus the false ego in the mahat tattva is that of the marginal potency - the jiva who has desired to enjoy separately from the Lord.
• Thus due to the agitation of the glance of Maha Vishnu false ego is produced(from UHLF -Page 352 Navakishori dd - but it has already with the living entity??) and manifests in the three modes, goodness, passion and ignorance.
• Gradually those forms of false ego transform further.
• From False Ego in the mode of ignorance(tamas- full display of material creation under the spell of darkness of ignorance.Verses 2.5.26-29)
• Sky (ether) is generated along with sense object sound
• From Sky the Air element is generated along with sense object touch
• From Air the Fire element is generated along with the sense object shape
• From Fire the Water element is generated along with the sense object taste
• From Water the Earth elements is generated along with the sense object taste
• Each element contains within it all the sense objects previously generated
• From False ego in the mode of goodness(Vaikarika- the neutral stage of creation) Verse 2.5.30:
• The mind is generated along with the 10 demigods who control the bodily movements.e.g controller of directions, air, sun-God, father of Daksha prajapati,the Asvini Kumars, the fire God,the King of heaven, the worshipable deity in heaven, the chief of the Adityas and Brahmaji, the Prajapati.All come into existence.
• Same is mentioned in verse 3.5.30:"The false ego is transformed into mind by interaction with the mode of goodness. All the demigods who control the phenomenal world are also products of the same principle, namely the interaction of false ego and the mode of goodness."
• From False Ego in the mode of passion(tejas - the initiative of creation) From 2.5.31:
• intelligence, prana(the life force)
• five knowledge acquiring senses- eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin
• five working senses - voice, legs, hands, genitals, anus
• Also mentioned in 3.5.31: "The senses are certainly products of the mode of passion in false ego, and therefore philosophical speculative knowledge and fruitive activities are predominantly products of the mode of passion."

Its interesting to note that Srimad Bhagavatam says that the false ego is the cause of this false material creation  and it also explains in the 12th canto that the death of the false ego is the Ultimate Annihilation of the material creation. See the link below for the post on this topic.

Death of the false ego - the Ultimate Annihilation

Having understood this how should we move about in this material world:

can be read here as explained by Suta goswami

Accumulation,Artificial needs take us away from Krishna

From Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 2.5.24
Materialistic ego, or the sense of identification with matter, is grossly self-centered, devoid of clear knowledge of the existence of God. And this self-centered egoism of the materialistic living entities is the cause of their being conditioned by the other paraphernalia and continuing their bondage of material existence.

By the will of the Lord, therefore, the impersonalist, even after knowing the Brahman and Paramātmā features of the Lord, remains ignorant of His eternal personal feature as ever-existent Nārāyaṇa, transcendental to all material creation.

The cause of such gross ignorance is constant engagement by the materialistic man in the matter of artificially increasing material demands. To realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to purify the materialistic senses by devotional service. 

dravya sakti, kriya sakti and jnana sakti

The mode of goodness, or the brahminical culture recommended in the Vedic literatures, is helpful to such spiritual realization, and thus the jñāna-śakti stage of the conditioned soul is comparatively better than the other two stages, namely dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti. 

 The whole material civilization is manifested by a huge accumulation of materials, or in other words, raw materials for industrial purposes, and the industrial enterprises (kriyā-śakti) are all due to gross ignorance of spiritual life.

 In order to rectify this great anomaly of materialistic civilization, based on the principles of dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti, one has to adopt the process of devotional service of the Lord by adoption of the principles of karma-yoga, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.27) as follows:

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
 yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
 tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

“O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me.”

From Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 2.5.30

tamas is the full display of material creation under the spell of the darkness of ignorance. Manufacture of the “necessities of life” in factories and workshops, excessively prominent in the Age of Kali, or in the age of the machine, is the summit stage of the quality of darkness.

 Such manufacturing enterprises by human society are in the mode of darkness because factually there is no necessity for the commodities manufactured. Human society primarily requires food for subsistence, shelter for sleeping, defense for protection, and commodities for satisfaction of the senses.

Human civilization is meant for purifying the senses, and objects of sense satisfaction should be supplied as much as absolutely required, but not for aggravating artificial sensory needs. Food, shelter, defense and sense gratification are all needs in material existence. Otherwise, in his pure, uncontaminated state of original life, the living entity has no such needs.

The needs are therefore artificial, and in the pure state of life there are no such needs. As such, increasing the artificial needs, as is the standard of material civilization, or advancing the economic development of human society, is a sort of engagement in darkness, without knowledge. By such engagement, human energy is spoiled, because human energy is primarily meant for purifying the senses in order to engage them in satisfying the senses of the Supreme Lord
The Vedas instruct us to get out of the existence of darkness and go forward on the path of light (tamasi mā jyotir gama). The path of light is therefore to satisfy the senses of the Lord.