Isha Foundation / Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

The Isha Foundation was founded in 1992 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India by Jagadish 'Jaggi' Vasudev (born 3 September 1957 in Mysore, Karnataka), an English-language Indian guru figure who took the religious name 'Sadhguru' (Tamil/Sanskrit for 'true guru'). Vasudev had been a successful businessman in poultry, construction, and food industries in Mysore before reporting a 1982 spiritual experience on Chamundi Hill that led him to abandon business and begin teaching yoga and meditation. The Isha Yoga Centre at the base of Velliangiri Mountain in the Western Ghats serves as the foundation's headquarters; the 112-foot Adiyogi Shiva statue installed there in 2017 is one of the largest bust sculptures in the world.

The foundation's flagship programme is Inner Engineering: a 4-day intensive course teaching Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya and a specific Sadhguru-attributed yoga methodology. The course is offered globally and has been completed by an estimated 9 million people, generating substantial revenue. Other operations include: (a) the Isha Yoga Centre's residential consecrated-monastic 'Brahmacharya' community of approximately 600-800 celibate residents who follow Sadhguru as guru; (b) Project GreenHands and Rally for Rivers environmental initiatives; (c) Isha Vidhya rural-school network; (d) numerous Sadhguru speaking engagements, books, and YouTube content (8+ million subscribers).

Documented coercive-control concerns emerged in waves. 1997 wife Vijji death: Sadhguru's first wife Vijaykumari ('Vijji', 1965-1997) died at the Isha Yoga Centre under disputed circumstances in January 1997 at age 32. Sadhguru's account describes a samadhi-death (voluntary departure from the body); Vijji's father Vishwanath subsequently filed a missing-persons-then-dowry-death complaint with Coimbatore police. The case remained inconclusive, with no autopsy performed; Sadhguru was cleared of formal charges. The 1997 death has been a continuing subject of The Wire and Vice coverage 2018-2024. 2024 Madras High Court / Supreme Court petition: in March 2024, S Kamaraj, a retired professor and father of two daughters (Lata and Geetha) who had become Brahmacharyas at the Isha Yoga Centre, filed a habeas corpus petition with the Madras High Court alleging that Isha was holding his daughters against their will. The case was escalated to the India Supreme Court; in October 2024 the Supreme Court instructed the daughters to appear before the court, which they did, stating they were participating voluntarily. The case was ultimately closed without intervention but the political-judicial scrutiny continues.

Documented BITE-profile patterns include: (a) Inner Engineering's intensive 4-day format with documented thought-replacement characteristics (consistent meditation, sleep regulation, dietary regulation, in-group bonding); (b) the Brahmacharya monastic community's documented severance from outside family during early consecration; (c) substantial financial-extraction via course fees (Inner Engineering ranges $400-2,000+ depending on format), donations, and merchandise; (d) the Sadhguru cult-of-personality maintained through extensive social-media and speaking-tour visibility; (e) reported severance pressure on disciples who depart Brahmacharya status, documented in ex-Brahmacharya accounts.

The CLCI 23 (High, mid-range) reflects the documented Inner Engineering programmes, the Brahmacharya monastic community's coercive-control profile, the 1997 Vijji death dispute, and the 2024 Supreme Court probe — patterns that produce a meaningful BITE profile while remaining below the Extreme threshold. Isha is included in this dataset as a modern guru organisation scored on operational mechanics, not on its Hindu-philosophical content.