“Ráma”. The root verb is ram. In Sanskrit, ram means “to enjoy”, “to rejoice”. The root verb ram plus the suffix ghaiṋ makes the word “Ráma”. “Ráma” means “source of enjoyment”. The object from which yogis get pleasure is Ráma – Rámante yoginah yasmin. Here “pleasure” means “supramundane beatitude”, “supramundane blessedness”. This is the meaning of the word “Ráma”. That is, “Ráma” means that “Supreme Consciousness”.

The next word is Shiva. Shiva also means “Consciousness”. In ancient times, about 6500 years ago, there was a great, great yogi in India named Shiva, or Sadáshiva. He always maintained His spiritual unison with the Supreme Cognitive Principle, with the Supreme Self. And His unison with the Supreme Self was never interrupted by any worldly vibrations. It was without any break, without any pause. And that’s why other yogis accepted Him as their object of adoration, and He became “Maháyogi”. So in late Sanskrit, the word Shiva was also used in the sense of “Cosmic Consciousness”, in the sense of “Cosmic blessedness”, in the sense of the eternal ocean of existence. So Shiva also means the Cosmic Consciousness.

And the third one is “Mahádeva”. Deva – this universe is compared with a wheel, the Cosmological wheel, the Cosmo-psychic wheel. And the hub of this wheel is Puruśottama; the Nucleus of this wheel is Puruśottama. And the spokes – there are innumerable spokes – what are these spokes? The spokes are various vibrations, various vibrational sounds, various vibrational lights. So these spokes, these vibrations, these innumerable vibrations, are called deva. Deva means “divine vibration”; deva means “divine effulgence”. And “Mahádeva” means “Supreme Deva”; that is, this hub, this hub of the wheel, this nave of the wheel, this nucleus of this Cosmological order, is Mahádeva. So in the Shiva Stotram it is said:

Tava tattvaḿ na jánámi kiidrsho’si Maheshvara;
Yádrsho’si Mahádeva tadrsháya namo namah.

[O Maheshvara, I do not know what You are like. I do not know Your secrets. But in whatever form You may exist, I salute You.]

“O Mahádeva, I do not know how Thou art, what Thou art, because an individual with his finite brain cannot comprehend these things.” That’s why the sádhaka says: Tava tattvaḿ na jánámi, Ahaḿ Tava tattvaḿ na jánámi, Ahaḿ Tava tattvaḿ na veda – “I do not know how Thou art, what Thou art, but I prostrate before Thee. I do not know what Thou art, but whatever Thou art, I prostrate before that Thou.” Yádrsho’si Mahádeva tadrsháya.

This is the meaning of “Mahádeva”. So “Mahádeva” means “the Supreme and Divine Effulgence”. That is, the Supreme Causal Factor of this universe. Not the Causal Matrix, but the Causal Factor.