We don't ask people to take up monkhood: Sadhguru's Isha Foundation

Days after the Madras High Court rapped Isha Foundation and its 67-year-old founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, asking why they "encouraged" women to live like hermits, the organisation on Wednesday said it doesn't ask people to take up monkhood or sannyasa.

The Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation in a statement said it is home to thousands who are not monks or sanyasis, and a few are monks and practising brahmacharis. The foundation's statement came after Tamil Nadu Police conducted a detailed investigation into the ashram on Tuesday following a Madras High Court order to investigate the activities of the Isha Foundation.

The Isha Life e-shop — which also offers such items as "consecrated saris" and "consecrated snake rings" — lists a photograph of Jaggi Vasudev's feet for Rs 3,200 and the product description says his feet “are revered because they are the pathway to access the Guru’s energy”, as per a Hindustan Times report.

Meanwhile, social media users went into a tizzy through Tuesday and Wednesday as reports emerged of the foundation's online shop selling images of his feet at a whopping Rs 3,200 per piece.

Devotees and supporters tried to defend the 'foot-age' by referring to them as “guru paduka” and citing scriptural significance. Which didn't really answer the question of why the images had to be sold instead of being freely downloadable, for instance.

The amusement that netizens felt was compounded by the fact that the price went all the way up to £75 (approx. Rs 8,355) for NRI buyers. As one X user put it, "£75 for Sadhguru's feet pics? Seems like spirituality's got a new hustle—selling 'sole'-ful blessings to folks with more cash than common sense. Guess enlightenment is just a limited edition, pay-per-view experience now. Namaste, but make it capitalist."

Meanwhile, the statement from the Isha Foundation says, "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."

The Isha group said they do not pressure people to opt for marriage or take up monkhood as these are individual choices. "Despite this, the petitioner wanted the monks to be produced before the court and the monks presented themselves before the court. They have clearly said they are staying at the Isha Foundation of their own volition. We hope the truth will prevail and that there is an end to all the unnecessary controversies created."

A 150-strong Coimbatore Police team led by district superintendent K. Karthikeyan conducted an inquiry on Tuesday at the Isha Foundation on charges of two women being kept there in captivity. Madras HC had directed the state government and Coimbatore rural police to probe all allegations against the foundation.

A retired professor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, S. Kamaraj, had moved a habeas corpus petition in Madras HC saying his two daughters, Geetha Kamaraj and Latha Kamaraj, were being kept in captivity at the Isha Foundation and that he wanted the intervention of the court to bring them back home.

He had also told the court that he had received a call from his elder daughter stating that his younger daughter had said 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. Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam of the Madras High Court had, while hearing the case, interacted with the daughters of the petitioner and decided to probe the case further.

Justice Subramaniam said the court exercising the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution was expected to do complete justice and that it was necessary to get to the bottom of the case. The court also asked why a person (Sadguru) whose daughter was married, was asking other women to be hermits.

The court has directed additional public prosecutor E. Raj Thilak to file a status report by 4 October listing all cases related to Isha Foundation. The court was responding to the argument by the petitioner's lawyer M. Purushothaman that there were multiple cases involving the foundation and that a doctor serving in the organisation had been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

With agency inputs