Lord Shiva is the personification of the Supreme Godhead or the absolute principle.

Lord Shiva is the personification of the Supreme Godhead or the absolute principle. That is why he is also worshipped in the form of Linga which symbolizes the source of all cosmos. Mahadev is another name for Shiva, the greatest of all gods or the god of all gods. The word Mahadev literally means the biggest god or who is second to none. The other meaning is also the leader of all gods. Thus Shiva is the highest God in hierarchy with the other gods occurring in the various strata of the pyramid.

Shiva is also worshipped as Nataraja and is shown to be engaged in a cosmic dance. He has in him all the five elements namely sky (symbolized by the damaru he holds in his hand), air (symbolized by the deer he holds in his hands), fire (held in one of the hands), water (the holy Ganges flowing from his matted hair), and earth (the holy ash smeared all over his body).

Cosmic dance is the final dance that happens at the end of dissolution of the entire universe. It is said that the whole universe came forth from the damaru of Lord Shiva. Then Shri Vishnu appears from him to take care of the creation. Then Brahma emanates from Shri Vishnu's naval to continue the creation of the rest of the worlds. Thus, it is from Shiva that all the other gods came forth.

During the process of dissolution, Lord Brahma merges back into Shri Vishnu and Shri Vishnu merges back into Lord Shiva thus completing the cycle. Lord Shiva is alone without any second one during that time and found engaged in cosmic dance smearing the holy ash all over his body. Thus Mahadev is the primal entity that existed before anything came forth and also the final entity that shall remain after all the worlds are dissolved. ✨🌀👁🕉🔱🐍⌛️💀🌙🎨🙏🏻✨

Har Har Mahadev ~~ Om Namah Shivaya Kashi Vishwanath Gange 🔱👁🐍💀🌙⏳
Shubh Prabhat 🕉🙏🕉