Karma Cola : Marketing the Mystic East

by Gita Mehta

Release Date: 28 June, 1994

Edition: Paperback

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Karma Cola maintains its fizz...

I've come to this book a little late in its publishing history, and though the story is dated in terms of the mass of seekers who descended on India in the 60's and 70's westerners still seek the "wisdom of the east," and this Karma Cola has not lost its fizz. This is an angry, critical, sarcastic look at the rage for inner peace that has driven many seekers to psychiatric care, and many gurus to the bank. It's also a book filled with sadness as Gita Mehta both castigates and mourns - for her country's spiritual traditions stacked into the supermarket of the latest craze; and for the naive who believe hard won self-knowledge can be had with the touch of a teacher's hand - or a certain less visible appendage. It's finally true that if you can't find peace and love at home you probably won't find it in India either. Besides, six thousand years of spiritual and cultural history just shouldn't be toyed with.

Not the usual view of India

Karma Cola is definitely required reading for any westerner interested in things Indian or perhaps contemplating hitting the Dharma trail. Its recognition that misunderstanding goes both ways (eg. the anecdotes about gurus treatment of their Western students) is a good reality check for those of us whose spiritual search has taken us there. Ms Mehta gently reminds us that trying to absorb 5000 years of experience and living may take a little more than a few weeks of squat loos, and some Om Mani Padme Hums.

This is the first time I've ever read a book about the move of Eastern thought into the West which was not written by a Westerner. In some ways sobering, it is also witty and at times poignant.

By the way, an earlier reviewer lambasted the author for attributing the wrong language to clerks from Kerala. That mistake has been fixed in the edition I have (Minerva 1997 paperback).