When Jaggi Vasudev’s daughter is married and well-settled in life, why is he encouraging other women to live like hermits, ask Madras High Court judges

When Jaggi Vasudev’s daughter is married and well-settled in life, why is he encouraging other women to live like hermits, ask Madras High Court judges

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI 01.10.2024 

When Jaggi Vasudev, alias Sadhguru, of Isha Foundation had got his daughter married and ensured that she was well-settled in life, why was he encouraging other young women to tonsure their heads, renounce worldly life, and live like hermits at his yoga centres, asked Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam of the Madras High Court on Monday.

The judges raised the question during the hearing of a habeas corpus petition filed by S. Kamaraj, 69, a retired professor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore. The petitioner had claimed that two of his well-educated daughters, aged 42 and 39, respectively, had been “brainwashed” into living at the Isha Yoga Centre permanently. Both the alleged detainees, however, appeared before the Division Bench on Monday and made it clear that they were residing at the yoga centre on the Velliangiri foothills in Coimbatore of their own volition.

Nevertheless, after interacting with them, the judges decided to probe the issue further.

Surprised by their decision, advocate K. Rajendra Kumar, representing Isha Foundation, said the court could not expand the scope of the case. However, Justice Subramaniam said the court, exercising the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, was expected to do complete justice, and it was necessary to get to the bottom of the case.

The judge also said the court had certain doubts regarding the case. When the advocate sought to know what they were, Justice Sivagnanam said, “We want to know why a person who had given his daughter in marriage and made her settle well in life is encouraging the daughters of others to tonsure their heads and live the life of a hermitess.”

When the advocate replied that an adult was free to choose their own path in life, and that he could not understand the court’s doubt, Justice Subramaniam said, “You will not understand because you are appearing for a particular party. But this court is neither for nor against anybody. We only want to do justice to the litigants.”

When the petitioner’s daughters sought to make their submissions, the senior judge in the Bench said, “You claim to be on the path of spirituality. Don’t you think that neglecting your parents is a sin? We could see so much of hatred in you for your parents.”

On being told by the petitioner’s counsel, M. Purushothaman, that there were multiple criminal cases involving Isha Foundation, and that recently, a doctor serving there had been booked under the POCSO Act, the judges directed Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak to file a status report by October 4, listing all the cases related to the foundation.

In his affidavit, the petitioner said his elder daughter had obtained her engineering degree in mechatronics in 2003 and pursued M.Tech from a popular university in the U.K. She got a job in the same university and was drawing around ₹1 lakh a month in 2004. She married a man based out of the U.S. in 2007, but they got divorced in 2008. She then began attending yoga classes at Isha Foundation. 

Following in her footsteps, the petitioner’s younger daughter, a software engineer, began residing at the yoga centre, the petitioner said. He said that life had been “hell” for him and his 63-year-old wife ever since their daughters “abandoned” them. He alleged that some kind of food and medicine was being administered to his daughters, which made them lose their cognitive faculties.