There are five elements or bhutas, which constitute, by their permutations and combinations, the world called Prapancham, the ‘Five-constituted.’ Prithvi or the Earth - element has five qualities, the maximum, and so, it is the grossest. It has its own special characteristic of gandha (smell), as well as the characteristic of the other four, namely, sparsha, rasa, rupa and shabda (touch, taste, form and sound). The next one jala, the water-element has only four, its own special one---taste and touch, form So it is subtler than the Earth-element.

Agni is subtler still, because apart from its special characteristics of form, it has only two others, sound and touch. Vayu, the Air-element has touch as its special and one more quality, sound. Finally the lightest and subtlest of all the five, Akasha, the Sky-element, has only one characteristic, its own, namely, shabda. Now, God is subtler than even Akasha and so He is all-pervading, even more than ether or anything more pervasive than that. His nature is beyond all human vocabulary, beyond all human mathematics. Have this conviction well stabilised in your intellect. (SSS Vol.4, p. 57)

The word prapancha which you use so freely to indicate this created world means, that which is composed of the Pancha bhutas---the five elements of earth, fire, water, wind and ether. (SSS Vol.1, p. 96)