Because the elements are only parts, they cannot exist without their sense objects, which are also parts. Since the whole universe and body is unreal, the elements and sense objects are also unreal. It has just been explained that the body is false. Now the causes of the body such as earth element are explained to be false. The word dhātu means “that which supports.” The five gross elements (dhatavaḥ) cannot exist without their tan-mātras, the sense objects, their subtle portions. “But the parts should be real since the whole is real.” But the whole is unreal (proven in the last verse), and thus the parts are also unreal. One cannot prove the reality of the parts unless the whole is real. It has been said: evaṁ niruktaṁ kṣiti-śabda-vṛttam asan nidhānāt paramāṇavo ye avidyayā manasā kalpitās te yeṣāṁ samūhena kṛto viśeṣaḥ What is known by the word “earth” exists in name only because earth is resolved into atomic particles, which are imagined by the mind out of ignorance. Out of their totality, a particular object is made. SB 5.12.9