What's the controversy surrounding Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation?

The Supreme Court has stayed police action against the Isha Foundation of Jaggi Vasudev, alias Sadhguru. On Thursday (October 3), the top court also transferred the matter to itself from the Madras High Court, asking the Tamil Nadu police to file a status report.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud was hearing the foundation’s challenge to the HC order. The organisation came under the scanner after the High Court sought a report on all criminal cases lodged against Sadhguru’s foundation earlier this week. Soon after, The Tamil Nadu police carried out inquiries at the Isha Foundation’s ashram in Thondamuthur.

The Madras HC’s order came while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the father of two women who claims his daughters have been “brainwashed” to reside at the Isha Yoga Centre permanently.

What is the case about? What did the Madras High Court say? What do we know about the police’s inquiry? Let’s take a look.

Why Isha Foundation came under fire

Dr S Kamaraj, 69, a retired Tamil Nadu Agricultural University professor in Coimbatore, had filed a petition alleging his two daughters – Geetha Kamaraj (42) and Latha Kamaraj (39) – were being confined at the Isha Foundation in Coimbatore.

As per an Indian Express report, he accused the foundation of brainwashing people, converting them into monks, and limiting their contact with their families.

The petition alleges that the “foundation is abusing certain persons, by brainwash and converting them as monks and not even allowing the parents and relatives to meet the inmate monks”, reported ThePrint.

According to Kamaraj’s petition, his daughters were forced to become monks by the organisation. The petition mentioned that the retired professor’s elder daughter did her engineering in mechatronics in 2003 and then went on to get an M Tech degree from a popular varsity in the United Kingdom.

The petition said she was earning a considerable salary before her divorce in 2008. After the divorce, she started attending yoga classes in 2012 at the foundation located in the foothills of Vellingiri hills in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district.

Kamaraj’s younger daughter – a software engineer – followed her sister’s footsteps and subsequently decided to stay at the yoga centre permanently, the petition said. He has accused the foundation of giving food and medicines to his daughters which affected their cognitive faculties, leading to them severing ties with their family.

The retired professor said life had been “hell” for him and his wife after their daughters “abandoned” them, reported The Hindu.

The petition also talked of a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case against a doctor working at the Isha Foundation.

Speaking to ThePrint, Kamaraj claimed that Latha, his second daughter, had gone to Isha Yoga Centre to rescue her sister. “But she also took up monkhood there. When we went to the yoga centre to inquire about them, both had tonsured their heads and we could not believe that my younger daughter who had gone to rescue my first daughter had also taken up monkhood,” he added.

The father alleged he was not allowed to meet his daughters as per his wish. “Even if I go there every month, I cannot see them. They will meet only once in six months and even during the meeting, they hardly say anything. ‘Namaskaram. You came here to see me and you saw me. You can leave now’ are the only words they speak most of the time,” he told ThePrint.

What the Madras HC said

Hearing the case on Monday (September 30), the Madras HC justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam asked why Sadhguru was encouraging young women to tonsure their heads and live like hermits when he got his own daughter married and well-settled in life.

The counsel representing the Isha Foundation initially refused to bring the two women before the court but produced them later on Monday after the High Court’s order, as per ThePrint.

As per Indian Express, the two sisters said they were residing at the yoga ashram of their own volition and not under compulsion or detention.

“You claim to be on a spiritual path. Don’t you think ignoring your parents is a sin? ‘Love all and hate none’ is the basic principle of devotion, but we can see so much hate (in you) for your parents. You are not even treating them respectfully,” Justice Subramaniam told the women about their hostility with their parents, reported ThePrint.

The petitioner’s counsel, M Purushothaman, argued criminal cases against the foundation have been filed in the past.

On the POCSO case mentioned in the petition, the court order said, “The petitioner in person would submit that even recently a criminal case under POCSO has been registered against a doctor, who is working in the very same institution. The allegation against the said person was that he molested 12 girls studying in the Adivasi Government School.”

K Rajendra Kumar, the counsel representing the Isha Foundation, told the Madras HC that adults were free to make their own decisions, including choosing a spiritual path. He said the court’s probe into such personal decisions was “unnecessary”, reported Indian Express.

Justice Subramaniam replied: “You will not understand because you are appearing for a particular party. But this court is neither for or against anybody. We only want to do justice to the litigants before us.”

The court ordered the Coimbatore Rural Police to conduct an inquiry and file a report. It directed the Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to submit a comprehensive status report by October 4.

Police reach Isha Foundation

As many as 150 police personnel, led by Superintendent of Police (Coimbatore) K Karthikeyan, carried out inquiries at the ashram on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The teams of police personnel, officials from the social welfare department and the district child protection unit made inquiries.

As per ThePrint sources, those who took up monkhood were asked at least 30 questions. “They were asked if they stay on their own will or by compulsion, how they first came to know about the ashram and what’s being taught in the process. Social welfare department officials have recorded the answers on video and in writing as well,” a source said.

SP (Coimbatore) Karthikeyan told the media that Isha Foundation was cooperating with the probe and the cops would submit a consolidated report before the Madras HC on Thursday.

What Isha Foundation said

The Isha Foundation said they “do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood; these are individual choices”.

It said the foundation is home to thousands of people, and only a few have chosen monkhood.

“Isha Foundation was founded by Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) to impart yoga and spirituality to people. We believe that adult individual human beings have the freedom and the wisdom to choose their path. We do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood as these are individual choices,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Referring to the criminal cases pending against Isha Yoga Centre, it said there is just one such case and that too has been stayed by the Madras High Court.

“Previously, this very petitioner, along with others, tried trespassing into our premises on the false pretext of being a fact-finding committee to inquire about the facts surrounding the crematorium being constructed by Isha Foundation and then filed a criminal complaint against the people of Isha Yoga Center. Against this, the Hon’ble High Court of Madras has granted a stay on submission of the final report by the police. Apart from this, there is no other criminal case against the foundation,” the foundation said.

With inputs from agencies