From JnaanaVaasishtam:
स्वस्यैवतस्यभानस्यधत्ते पृथ्व्यादिकल्पनात्।
The embodied Jeeva holds on to the imagination also of the elements like Prthvee (earth etc) (which explains the solid nature of the objects).
[How do the senses manage to create a solid object?
Extend your hands in front; the sense of touch tells you that there is something out there that your hands cannot pass through; the sense of sight projects an image that has a front, back and sides; sense of smell recognizes something called smell which differentiates the object from the others; sense of taste goes after it, or rejects it; sense of sound locates the object in space; and some object is understood as existing in the emptiness.
Every object, live or inert is some sense-information only, that gets explained as a narrative when the information gets processed.
This information-processing function is known as the 'Manas'.
The object which stays as ‘the non-material formless Knowledge essence’ (information that is produced and grasped by the senses along with the mind) is experienced as a solid real object by the mind, through the medium of senses.
Instantly the Jeeva is stuck to the reality of the object and reacts to it as a solid body only.
His world is made of solidity only.
He cannot even imagine what it is to be non-solid.
For him the world is a solid structure filled with objects made of elements, firmly placed in a fixed time-scale.]