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Isha Foundation

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Isha Foundation
Logo of Isha Foundation.png
Founded1992; 29 years ago (1992)
FounderJaggi Vasudev
TypeNon-Profit Organization
FocusYoga, social upliftment, ecological conservation
Location
Area served
India, Lebanon, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore
MethodYoga programs, meditation, tree planting, Rural upliftment
Websiteisha.sadhguru.org

Isha Foundation is a non-profit, spiritual organisation founded in 1992 near Coimbatore, India, by Jaggi Vasudev.[1] It hosts the Isha Yoga Centre, which offers yoga programs under the name Isha Yoga. The foundation is run "almost entirely" by volunteers.[2][3][4] The word isha means "the formless divine".[5][6]

Isha Yoga

Vasudev conducting an "Inner Engineering" class at BSE, Mumbai

The Yoga Centre, founded at Isha Foundation in 1994,[7] offers yoga programmes under the name Isha Yoga. This customised system of yoga[6] combines postural yoga with chanting, breathing (prāṇāyāma)[6] and meditation.[8] It does not belong to a lineage (paramparā), and its practitioners believe it to be based on the founding guru's unique insight.[8]

Yoga classes for business leaders are intended to "introduce a sense of compassion and inclusiveness" to economics.[9][10]

A yoga course for the Indian national hockey team was conducted in 1996.[11] Isha Foundation began conducting yoga programs in the United States in 1997[12][13] and, in 1998, yoga classes for life-term prisoners in Tamil Nadu prisons.[14]

Activities

The foundation regularly organises gatherings (sathsangs) with Vasudev in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where he delivers discourses, leads meditations, and conducts question-answer sessions.[15] It also organises annual pilgrimages (yatras) to Mount Kailash and the Himalayas. The Kailash pilgrimage led by Vasudev is among the largest groups to visit Kailash, with 514 pilgrims making the journey in 2010.[16][17]

The centre also hosts an annual seven-day-long music and dance festival culminating in the all-night celebration of Maha Shivaratri, a major Hindu festival honouring Shiva.[18]

Social and environmental initiatives

Project GreenHands

Saplings being readied for transportation at a PGH nursery

Project GreenHands (PGH) was established in 2004 as an environmental organisation. Its activity is largely focused on Tamil Nadu. It received the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar, the Government of India's environmental award, in 2010.[3] Its activities include agroforestry, plant nurseries in schools,[19] and tree-planting in urban centres such as Tiruchirappalli[20] and Tiruppur.[21]

Action for Rural Rejuvenation

Action for Rural Rejuvenation is a health and community-oriented program focusing on rural Tamil Nadu. It was established in 2003, and as of 2010, operated in 4,200 villages with a population of seven million.[22][23]

Action for Rural Rejuvenation hosts the annual Gramotsavam sports festival in Tamil Nadu, promoting sports as a part of daily life in rural communities to improve mental and physical well-being.[24] In recognition of this effort, Isha received India's National Sports Promotion Award in the Sport for Development category in 2018.[25]

Isha Vidhya

Isha Vidhya, an education initiative, aims to raise education and literacy in rural India by providing quality English-language-based, computer-aided education for children. There are seven Isha Vidhya Schools, with around 3000 students.[26]

Isha Home School premises.

Rally for Rivers

Rally for Rivers was a month-long, nationwide campaign launched by Isha Foundation in 2017 to address the scarcity of water across rivers in India and instill awareness about protecting rivers.[27] Vasudev launched the campaign on 3 September from Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore.[28] [29] On 3 October, a river revitalisation draft proposal was presented by Vasudev to Narendra Modi.[30] The states of Karnataka, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with Isha Foundation to plant trees along river banks.[31][32][33][34][35][36] The Niti Aayog and the Ministry of Water Resources constituted committees to study the draft policy proposal.[35][37] Under the name Rally for Rivers, a Cauvery calling campaign was organised which would last over a decade. The project mainly focuses on river Kaveri. In November, at a conference in Germany, the executive director of the United Nations Environmental Program, Erik Solheim, discussed Rally for Rivers with Vasudev, and how environmental programs around the world could emulate its success.[38]

Rally for Rivers has been criticised by environmentalists who allege that it was trying to solve a complex problem with a "shallow solution".[39]

Cauvery Calling

The Cauvery Calling project aims to support farmers in planting an estimated 2.4 billion trees through agroforestry, thereby covering one third of Cauvery basin with trees as a means of conserving it. The project has received acclaim from politicians and members of the movie industry, yet environmentalists and public intellectuals have alleged that it presents a simplistic view of river conservation, sidestepping social issues and ignoring the potential harm to tributaries and wildlife habitats.[40][41][42]

A public interest litigation has also been filed in the Karnataka High Court questioning the legality of the fundraising practices for the initiative, and the usage of government owned land for a private purpose without supporting study.[43][44][45][46] In January 2020, the High Court ruled that the Foundation needed to disclose details of its fundraising practices relating to the initiative.[47]

Ashram

Isha Foundation's headquarters are located in an ashram on the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains, adjacent to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve,[18] some forty kilometres from the city of Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India.[48]

Adiyogi Shiva statue

Further information: Adiyogi Shiva statue
Adiyogi Shiva statue at Isha Foundation's ashram near Coimbatore, India.

Vasudev designed the 112-foot Adiyogi Shiva statue at the Isha Yoga Centre. It was inaugurated on Mahashivaratri, 24 February 2017, by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.[49] The statue depicts Shiva as the first yogi or Adiyogi, and first Guru or Adi Guru, who offered yoga to humanity. It was built by the Isha Foundation using 20,000 individual iron plates supplied by the Steel Authority of India[50] and weighs around 500 tonnes (490 long tons; 550 short tons). It has been recognised as the "Largest Bust Sculpture" by Guinness World Records.[51] A consecrated Shivalinga, Yogeshwar Linga, is at its base.[52]

Controversies and reception

The foundation's construction activities at Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore are alleged to have violated rules and regulations on several occasions.[53][54][55][56][57][58]

In 2016, a couple claimed that their two adult daughters were held captive at the Centre.[59][60] The Foundation denied the allegation and released a statement by the women asserting they were staying there voluntarily.[61] The case was dismissed in court.[62] Another woman alleged that her adult son was being held captive.[63][64][60]

References

  1. ^ "The most powerful Indians in 2009: 80–84". Indian Express. 9 March 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  2. ^ "Volunteering Opportunities". Isha Foundation. Retrieved 16 August 2021. Isha Foundation is almost entirely volunteer run. Every single action and activity of the foundation and its worldwide centers is done on a volunteer basis.
  3. ^ a b Award for Project Green Hands Archived 2011-05-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Hindu, 8 June 2010, retrieved on 8 June 2010
  4. ^ "'Special Consultative Status' for Isha Foundation". The Hindu. 12 September 2007. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  5. ^ "Jaggi Vasudev – Exploring the unlimited". Life Positive. Archived from the original on 5 May 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  6. ^ a b c Goutham, Shruti (20 January 2011). "In pursuit of peace of mind". Daily News and Analysis. Bangalore. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  7. ^ Gobalakrishnan 2019, p. 38
  8. ^ a b Waghorne 2013, p. 285
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  11. ^ "Morale-Booster says Bhaskaran". Indian Express. 26 November 1996.
  12. ^ Hamburg, Jay (15 October 1997). "Yoga guru touts peace, not religion" (PDF). The Tennessean. pp. 1B–2B. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2020.
  13. ^ "It doesn't take a guru to know which way the stress flows". Dayton Daily News. 17 March 1998.
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  18. ^ a b Hudson & Hudson 2017, p. 2
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  20. ^ Staff Reporter (4 October 2010). "Green Tiruchi Movement seeks to rectify ailing environment". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
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  30. ^ "Indian economy not ready for a startup epidemic: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev". Live Mint. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
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  42. ^ "N Ram questions Jaggi Vasudev's Cauvery Calling, asks why it shifts goal posts". The News Minute. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  43. ^ Plumber, Mustafa (18 September 2019). "Karnataka High Court Issues Notice On PIL Challenging Fund Collection For 'Cauvery Calling' Project". www.livelaw.in. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
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  45. ^ "PIL to cap cash collection for 'Cauvery Calling' project". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  46. ^ "HC notice to State on plea to examine Isha Foundation's 'Cauvery Calling' project". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 18 September 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 7 October 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  47. ^ "Disclose details of money collected under 'Cauvery Calling': HC to Isha Foundation". The New Indian Express. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  48. ^ Berghella, Vincenzo (2018). Chennai and Coimbatore, India. Berghella. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-578-20085-9. OCLC 1032025559.
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  51. ^ "Largest bust (sculpture)". Guinness World Records.
  52. ^ "Yogeshwar: A Heartless Yogi". Isha Foundation. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
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  55. ^ Antony, Kathelene (12 July 2018). "CAG slams forest dept for Isha Foundation 'encroachments'". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
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  58. ^ Goyal, Prateek. "How Sadhguru built his Isha empire. Illegally". Newslaundry. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  59. ^ "Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Yoga Centre accused by retired professor of holding his daughter captive". Firstpost. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  60. ^ a b Aug 8, Pratiksha Ramkumar | TNN | Updated; 2016; Ist, 20:25. "My son is being held captive in Isha Yoga Centre, woman says | Coimbatore News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 October 2019.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  62. ^ "Isha Foundation gets reprieve as Madras HC dismisses plea centre is holding two women captive". Firstpost. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
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  64. ^ "Isha Foundation is holding my 32-year-old son hostage, claims another parent". The News Minute. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2019.

Bibliography

External links

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