A retired professor has claimed that his two daughters have been “brainwashed” into permanently residing at Sadhguru’s Isha Yoga Centre. The Madras High Court raised concerns about why Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who married off his own daughter, is promoting the idea of young women shaving their heads and renouncing worldly lives to become hermits.
Justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam posed this question to the founder of the Isha Foundation after the professor filed a petition for his daughters to appear in court. The two women, aged 42 and 39, testified that their choice to live at the Isha Foundation was voluntary and that they were not being held against their will. They had previously provided similar accounts in ongoing legal disputes initiated by their parents, who claimed their lives turned “hellish” after the daughters left home.
The judges chose to investigate further and instructed the police to compile a list of all Isha Foundation-related cases. Justice Sivagnanam questioned why Sadhguru would encourage others’ daughters to adopt a hermit lifestyle when he had arranged for his own daughter’s marriage.
Meanwhile, the Isha Foundation stated that the women were staying by their own choice, emphasizing that adults have the right to make their own decisions regarding marriage or monkhood. They noted that the Isha Yoga Centre hosts many individuals who are not monks, while only a few have chosen that path. The foundation also mentioned they currently have one pending police case, with another case previously stayed by the court.
