Wednesday14 Nov 10:55 AM
Adidas Play Yoga: Ambient Esoteric Significance
Adidas has begun to accept its dharma as a perpetrator of yoga. It still may have some time to awaken fully to this duty, but many long time yoga practitioners have found kinship with the cosmic, yet down-to-earth, vibrations of Adidas. Check out these Adidas yoga promotional videos, I love how yoga is positioned as an athletic "enhancer"—
"Adidas takes yoga beyond its spiritual roots and shows... that yoga is a sport which helps athletes of all levels to get better at whatever sport they do."
Adidas Press Release, September 2007
Souljerky pal and yoga teacher, Eddie Stern, first hipped me to the dharmic view of Adidas. (So he gets credit for these insights, I take responsibility for all the errors.)
The word "Adidas" breaks down in Sanskrit beautifully: "adi" indicates that which is "the first, primal, beginning, original" (cite) and "das" translates as a "servant of, or slave" (cite), thus we read the meaning of Adidas as "servant of the primal origin".
Now the Adidas logo at its most basic is three stripes, which can be seen to represent the three gunas. Moreover, the logo often appears as a trishula, or trident, whose three points can have various meanings and significance in the panoply of Hindu mythology, with many stories expounding upon it. Various trinities are often represented by the symbol —creation, maintenance and destruction; past, present and future; and (again) the three gunas...
Adidas "Play Yoga": Link. Link. Link. (via)
Image source: Saddhu.
Remarks
3 total remarks for this post. Add your own remarks below.
Wed 14 Nov 2007 at 12:56PM
Isaac
ādidāsa would be more likely "the first servant," , in accordance with how it fits into other compounds (e.g. ādidevaḥ, ādiḥ eva devaḥ, not ādeḥ devaḥ)
Wed 14 Nov 2007 at 03:13PM
Isaac
Hmmm. I just reread what I said... perhaps it's a bit too assertive. Eddie's interpretation is completely valid and possible, I was just going by similar attested forms.
Either way it's a fascinating idea.
Can it mesh with the Adidas as an acronym?
Sat 01 Dec 2007 at 09:10PM
souljerky, your site rocks. i picture you spending all your days 'simply' in your practice of yoga AND searching for all sorts of inspiration and thought provoking ideas for folks like me, to inspire and shake us so we don't fall asleep in this life, not even for a second. gracias.
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