'We don't ask people to take up monkhood', clarifies Isha Foundation

CHENNAI: Days after the Madras High Court rapped Isha Foundation and its founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, asking why they "encouraged" women to live a life of hermitess, the organisation said on Wednesday that it doesn't ask people to take up monkhood or 'sannyasa'.

The Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation in a statement on Wednesday said it is home to thousands who are not monks or sanyasis and a few are monks and practising brahmacharis.

The statement of the Foundation came after Tamil Nadu Police conducted 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 have clearly said that they are staying at the Isha Foundation on their own volition. We hope the truth will prevail and that there is an end to all the unnecessary controversies created."

A team of 150 cops from the Coimbatore police led by District Superintendent K. Karthikeyan conducted 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.

Justice S. M. Subramaniam and Justice 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 that 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 said why a person (Sadguru) whose daughter is married is asking other women to be hermitess.

The court also directed the Additional public prosecutor E. Raj Thilak to file a status report by October 4 listing all the cases related to the Isha Foundation.

The court was responding to the argument by the petitioner's lawyer, M.Purushothaman that there were multiple cases involving the Isha Foundation and that a doctor serving in the organisation was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.