The debates
Building in the Velliangiri foothills
In March 2017 the Tamil Nadu government told the Madras High Court that the Adiyogi lacked planning approval. A tribal protection society had sought its removal. A 2018 CAG report said Isha built between 2005 and 2008 without hill-area clearance in a zone known for elephants. The pollution board later pressed a notice over buildings put up from 2006 to 2014 without environmental clearance. The High Court quashed it in 2022 because Isha counts as an educational institution. The Supreme Court let that stand in February 2025 but said it set no precedent. In July 2026 The News Minute reported that the ruling leaned on ministry clarifications that followed an Isha request.
Isha says it obtained every approval and that the hill authority cleared its buildings in March 2017. It cites forest department and ministry affidavits that found no encroachment and no elephant corridor. In a 2022 BBC Tamil interview he said “every law that is there in the country has been followed”. Isha told the Supreme Court it would comply with the law.
Scroll (1 March 2017) · The News Minute (11 July 2018) · Scroll (28 February 2025) · The News Minute (9 July 2026) · Isha Foundation: Isha’s response to CAG report (25 April 2023)
Cauvery Calling and the tree count
Cauvery Calling aimed to plant 242 crore trees and asked donors for Rs 42 a tree. A 2019 public interest petition in the Karnataka High Court questioned the fundraising and the state’s part in it. The court removed the petitioner and ran the case on its own motion. It questioned the state’s conflicting statements. Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group and 95 civil society groups warned that planting in grasslands and floodplains could dry up streams. In September 2021 the court dismissed the case. It said planting trees on barren land is not a crime.
Isha says the trees go on farmers’ own land and not on public land. It says the model is polyculture agroforestry with species picked on official forestry advice. It called the petition frivolous and the activists’ letter a bid for publicity.
Deccan Chronicle (21 July 2019) · The News Minute (28 September 2019) · The News Minute (7 September 2021)
The 2024 habeas corpus case
S. Kamaraj told the Madras High Court that his two adult daughters were being held at the Isha Yoga Center. On 30 September 2024 the court ordered a police enquiry and a list of criminal cases against Isha. The Supreme Court stayed that order on 3 October and took over the case. On 18 October a bench led by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud closed it. The women, aged 42 and 39, said they lived there of their own free will. The police report also listed six missing persons, a POCSO case against a doctor and a complaints committee that was not working. The court told Isha to ensure a committee as the law requires. It said police could pursue other cases.
Isha’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi called the High Court’s steps unwarranted. He said they hurt an institution with lakhs of followers. He noted the petition came after one daughter announced a fast unto death. The court recorded that both women are adults living there by choice.
SCC Online (18 October 2024) · The News Minute (18 October 2024)
Mercury, eclipses and scientific claims
Rationalists and scientists have criticised several of his claims as pseudoscience. In February 2018 India moved to curb mercury under the Minamata Convention. He tweeted that responsible use of mercury for medicine and yoga must be allowed. He has said he can solidify mercury in his hand at room temperature. Scientist Sumaiya Shaikh wrote in Alt News that pure mercury is liquid at room temperature and toxic when swallowed. He has also been criticised for saying a lunar eclipse harms the body’s energy.
He calls Rasa Vaidya a “subjective science” of solidifying mercury. He says mercury itself is not poison and that industrial mercury compounds are. He adds: “If you misuse it, it poisons you.” He says Siddha medicine cannot work without mercury.
Wikipedia: Sadhguru · Alt News (26 February 2018) · Isha Foundation: Rasa Vaidya
Temples and political closeness
In March 2021 Isha launched a campaign to free Tamil Nadu’s temples from state control. Finance minister P. T. R. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan called him a “publicity hound” and a commercial operator. Scroll noted that Sangh Parivar groups and BJP manifestos had long made the same demand. Critics describe his views as Hindu nationalist and close to the BJP. In 2019 he apologised after calling a Muslim student in London a “Taliban”.
He says he belongs to no party and that “party membership should be cancelled because this is becoming a tribe”. He argues that state-run temples are decaying and should pass to devotees. Isha called the minister’s remarks unfortunate and said they trivialised its volunteers. It pointed to its work with elected governments in Tamil Nadu.
Scroll (20 May 2021) · Deccan Herald: Tamil Nadu’s finance minister vs Jaggi Vasudev (2021) · Wikipedia: Sadhguru
Overview · Life · Ideas · Books · Videos · Debates · People I learn from