Two former employees of the Jaggi Vasudev-run Isha Foundation on Thursday, 17 October, alleged that the foundation is a hub of child sexual abusers under the guise of spirituality.
Former Isha Home School faculty Yamini Ragani and her husband, former regional committee member for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Satya N Ragani, addressed the media in Hyderabad. They made allegations of cases of child abuse at the Isha Foundation-run educational institutions.
Satya, speaking to the media said that they have come before the media now, as they felt responsible for the recent cases of abuse related to the Isha Foundation.
The couple was referring to the doctor associated with the foundation who was charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. “Despite the registration of FIR, there was a delay in investigation.”
Satya further spoke about another incident, in which a child allegedly died due to electrocution on World Yoga Day in an Isha Home School.
He added, “When similar incidents happened in 2013, we had the opportunity to speak up, but we didn’t pay attention because we were core ISHA foundation volunteers. In fact, my wife was working as a faculty there. She walked out of it in June this year. I was a committee member for Andhra and Telangana. We just oversaw the activities of ISHA. We have no financial links to the foundation.”
He further noted that their own children— a boy child of theirs and a girl child of their friend were subjected to sexual abuse.
“The management is very irresponsible. They make arbitrary decisions. In any of these cases, we have never seen the founder personally involved or talk to those affected.”
‘Our child was abused for three years’
Yamini addressing the press said that her son had studied in the Isha Home School for eight years, of which he was abused for three years.
“When my son was in the 10th grade, he sent us an email, stating that he was in a lot of distress. He asked us to take him away immediately. This was when he was writing his board exams.”
Noting that they had been involved with Isha since 2014, Yamini said, “I was drawn to the foundation based on cultural basis. So I enrolled my son in the 6th grade in an ISHA home school. The initial couple of years, everything was fine, but I could see he was psychologically retracting. We didn’t understand why this was happening.”
She added, “During Covid, when our child came home, I happened to see his books, in which he wrote about everything. Initially we thought it was an isolated case, and that Sadguru did not know”
Yamini further claimed that they were kept in the dark by the management despite multiple complaints from the child to management. She questioned, “Our first red flag was inaction from the school management. These instances were not being told to Sadhguru. Why?”
Yamini speaking to the media claimed that the foundation’s schools, including Isha Vidya, Isha Sanskruti, and Isha Home School, lacked oversight, placing children in danger.
‘We noticed a pattern’
Yamini speaking of management’s response said that they communicated only through WhatsApp calls so that there wouldn’t be any mail trail or call recordings.
She added, “We sent many emails to the school about this issue, but they never replied. I kept insisting they respond via email, and eventually, they did. Then the higher management said they would talk to us.”
Yamini questioned, “The boy who molested our son comes from an elite family. When I asked the management if Sadhguru knew about this, they said he had been informed and had given instructions. I wanted to know what those instructions were. They told me Sadhguru said, ‘These are psychological issues. We should focus on reforms.’ I pointed out that there are kids aged 7 to 19 in that school—who will work on reforming this behaviour if it hasn’t even been reported?”
“They assured us the boy would not be allowed back into the school. However, when our son was in 11th grade, they let him return because of his elite background. Our son called us, saying he couldn’t stay there. Even then I thought maybe Sadhguru didn’t know about this and that the management had allowed the boy back. I questioned how they could let that boy return, as he was a threat to my child and younger students. They then said Sadhguru had sent him away.”
‘Volunteered to find the pattern’
Yamini claimed that it was then that she decided to join the school as a volunteer teacher to find a pattern, as she wanted to know if Sadhguru knew of these issues at all.
“On my first day, I noticed that the children were mentally and verbally abused, and many other issues. The school lacked qualified teachers, and they weren’t following board rules or having clear guidelines for running the school. There was no complaints committee in place. They established one on 9 October, only after going to the Supreme Court. Before that, there was no committee for the ashram or any of the schools they operated.”
“They speak so highly of his compassion, especially towards children. He never once asked us about our son, nor about that 16-year-old child who died. Neither he nor the school had the decency to even send those grieving parents a condolence message.”
Criticising the way the educational institutions are run, she added: “Most teachers at the school are untrained and only appear to have B.Ed degrees on paper, with volunteers often being presented as teachers without background checks. Given the annual fees of ₹5-7 lakhs, it’s concerning that volunteers change every few months, with some leaving after just 10 days. Establishing a school requires far more care.”
“There is a lot of verbal abuse that happens there. I am a victim and a witness to this.”
‘Seven-year-old raped in 2008’
She further claimed that a seven-year-old girl child was raped by a PE teacher in 2008.
The child’s mother speaking anonymously through a Zoom call said, “I am a victim’s mother who is speaking because I couldn’t get my daughter to talk. We were ISHA volunteers for seven years. We put our girl child in ISHA homeschool. We believed Jaggi Baba as a god, and served with complete trust and faith. But he and his ISHA foundation have spoilt our daughter’s life. We are victims of one of several cases of the foundation. Our daughter was raped several times by an ISHA homeschool teacher, who supervised the children in the school in Coimbatore. Our daughter has attempted suicide twice.”
“We didn’t get any letter from our daughter weekly. We got them monthly. But our daughter wrote to us and told us about it and the school hid the letters. We only received one letter a month via email. We got scared of guru Jaggi Vasudev and ISHA foundation, but now the case has come to the Supreme Court and we are ready to expose him.”
She urged, “You can email me at ishaacult@gmail.com. The time has come to reveal the truth about this guru.”
The Supreme Court, however on Friday, closed the habeas corpus petition regarding the alleged illegal confinement of two women against the Isha Foundation.
‘Girls made to meditate bare-chested’
Further alleging other supporters of Sadhguru of demotivating her to raise questions, Yamini said, “A lot of parents can say ‘Nothing happened to my child, they are okay there’ because your child was not assaulted, or raped, nor did they die, all these hardcore supporters are not caring about what happened to other children, it’s being very insensitive. Even before I came here, a lot of messages said ‘don’t go’.”
Yamini claimed that when she began speaking out against the management and the Ashram, many people came forward to share their experiences.
“We uncovered emails among top administrators about ISHA Sanskriti. The children, called balya brahmacharis, live in a residential setting where they aren’t allowed to talk to outsiders. They wake up at 4 a.m. for exhausting activities, and one email detailed disturbing practices, such as waking kids at 3 a.m. for cold baths and requiring girls to meditate bare-chested. When a girl child is involved how careful should the management be? Isn’t this exploitative?”
‘To avoid media scrutiny’
Speaking of the mail they accessed, Yamini said, “In the mail, it clearly says, ‘the children are not comfortable and the parents are not aware of this. At any point in time, the children may go out and talk. If this gets out, how do we deal with the police? This should be stopped immediately.’ This was the discussion between two women. They sent this to Sadhguru himself. Just because you hide behind an email address that doesn’t say ‘Sadhguru or Jaggi Vasudev,’ doesn’t mean the email doesn’t belong to you. He replied ‘ok to both’, meaning stop it because if it goes to the media, it will be a problem.”
“Despite numerous reports of issues, Sadhguru often claims he has addressed them. My child’s case, which I thought was isolated, is part of a larger pattern, and guidelines clearly state that any incidents involving young children should be reported to the police immediately.”
Yamini further claimed that she was threatened by two-three unknown people, while she was in the Ashram canteen, “you could be the missing one. You can go missing next or have an accident. Watch out for what you say.”
She added, “ISHA foundation is not an autonomous foundation where he gets special exemptions. He needs to follow the rules and regulations. A special investigation needs to take place. The government needs to do this. There are many reasons we couldn’t speak up before. But it’s high time the government acted on this.”
Isha rejects allegations
On Saturday, 19 October, the Isha Foundation issued a press release stating that it strongly condemns Naren and Yamini’s “baseless allegations.”
The press release read: “Ms Yamini had been relieved from the school earlier owing to various issues. At Isha, we are committed to transparency and honesty. We would like to inform that those who repeatedly make such baseless accusations will face serious legal consequences, and defamatory action will be taken against them.”
