Days after the Madras High Court criticized the Isha Foundation and its founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, for allegedly encouraging women to adopt a hermit lifestyle, the organization said on Wednesday that it doesn’t ask people to take up monkhood or ‘sannyasa’
In a statement on Wednesday, the Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation clarified that it is home to thousands of individuals who are neither monks nor sannyasis, although a few are monks and practicing brahmacharis.
The statement of the Foundation came after Tamil Nadu Police con- ducted a detailed investigation in the ashram on Tuesday following a Madras High Court order to investigate the activities of the Isha Foundation. “Sadhguru founded the Isha Foundation to impart yoga and spirituality to people. We believe that adult individual human beings have the freedom and wisdom to choose their path,” it added The Isha group said that they do not pressure people to opt for marriage or take up monkhood as these were individual choices. “Despite this, the petitioner wanted the monks to be produced before the court and the monks presented themselves before the court.
They clearly stated that they are staying at the Isha Foundation of their own volition. “We hope the truth will prevail and that all unnecessary controversies will come to an end,” they added.
A team of 150 cops from the Coimbatore police led by District Superintendent K. Karthikeyan con- ducted an inquiry on Tuesday at the Isha Foundation on charges of two women being kept under captivity.
The Madras High Court had directed the state government and Coimbatore rural police to probe all allegations against the Isha Foundation. A retired Professor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, S.Kamaraj, had moved a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court that his two daughters, Geetha Kamaraj and Latha Kamaraj, were kept under captivity at the Isha Foundation and that he wanted the intervention of the court to bring them back home.
He had also prayed before the court that he had received a telephone call from his elder daughter stating that his younger daughter had said that she would fast unto death if their father did not stop his legal moves against the Isha foundation.
The retired professor told the court that he feared the death of his daughters and requested the court to intervene in bringing back his daughters home.