Rating: 
Summary: A look at the consequences of India's "spiritual draw".
Review: An interesting look at what draws "spiritually starved" westerners to India and the consequential fallout. The author assumes a lot from the reader, particularly a working knowledge of spoken French and a rudimentary understanding of Hindu mythology. I'm lacking on both accounts so a lot of the book went over my head. One particular passage that sounds to me like it's important but I didn't fully appreciate, was the one where she is talking about the meaning of Karma and its perverted meaning by westerners. She relates the story, from the Bhagavad Gita, of Arjuna asking Krishna why he needs to go to war when understanding is superior to action in this case. Krishna answers that one is bound by action and that only by acting can one be free of the bondage of action. "That is exactly Karma" says the author. Now, here is where I have a problem, probably because of my limited understanding of Hinduism. *I* thought that Karma had to do with the totallity of ones actions and is *the* factor determining your next level of reincarnation. What the author seems to be implying is that Karma is, instead, the bondage of action, i.e. fate. That is, karma is the thing which predefines our actions rather than the measure of our actions. I am confused ..... On the other hand, her very pragmatic telling of the western approach to "instant nirvana" and the "distressed westerner" abdicating to the nearest Guru is actually quite refreshing and devoid of the mythical. :-) However,not quite so overtly there is the implication that the invasion of confused westerners has had a very destructive impact of the lives of ordinary Indians. When relating the story of the westerners who figured out a illegal route into India from Pakistan by taking advantage of the hospitality of Indians, the protaganist of the story is said to have said "One cannot make an omelet without breaking some eggs". The author continues by saying, "and from where I stand the ground is covered with broken egg shells". This I found quite sad .... the narcissistic westerners completely lacking in self-restraint and enough appreciation to understand that the path of "enlightenment" requires endurance and cannot be delivered at will. Mind you that's what Christianity preaches; just give your faith to god and you will be saved. Where is the prerequisite toil and self-sacrifice?
Rating: 
Summary: Useful & entertaining
Review: Humorous description of overseas visitors looking to India for spiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visiting Pune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made it even more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive. The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception of India.
Rating:
Summary: Useful & entertaining
Review: Humorous description of overseas visitors looking to India for spiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visiting Pune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made it even more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive. The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception of India.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not Moving
Review: I bought this book while traveling in India. Mehta offers well-written vignettes in which Western hippies make fools of themselves in "mystic" India. Several of these vignettes are genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. Beyond this "culture clash" humor, the book makes no deep statements on the interrelationship of Eastern and Western cultures. Perhaps her criticisms were more relevant when a glut of hippies saturated India in the 60s and 70s, but the glut has dried up. In fact, perhaps if more Americans did travel to other nations, including India, and showed a genuine appreciation for other cultures and belief systems, we would all be better off.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not Moving
Review: I bought this book while traveling in India. Mehta offers well-written vignettes in which Western hippies make fools of themselves in "mystic" India. Several of these vignettes are genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. Beyond this "culture clash" humor, the book makes no deep statements on the interrelationship of Eastern and Western cultures. Perhaps her criticisms were more relevant when a glut of hippies saturated India in the 60s and 70s, but the glut has dried up. In fact, perhaps if more Americans did travel to other nations, including India, and showed a genuine appreciation for other cultures and belief systems, we would all be better off.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but not Moving
Review: I bought this book while traveling in India. Mehta offers well-written vignettes in which Western hippies make fools of themselves in "mystic" India. Several of these vignettes are genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny. Beyond this "culture clash" humor, the book makes no deep statements on the interrelationship of Eastern and Western cultures. Perhaps her criticisms were more relevant when a glut of hippies saturated India in the 60s and 70s, but the glut has dried up. In fact, perhaps if more Americans did travel to other nations, including India, and showed a genuine appreciation for other cultures and belief systems, we would all be better off.
Rating: 
Summary: Second time around as good as the first
Review: I loved this book the first time I read it years ago and enjoyed it even more the second time just lately. Ms. Mehta has some important, well educated, and deeply meaningful observations, and succeeds in presenting them with a great deal of wit and truth, and certainly with sensitivity and care toward the humanity involved. I did not find her writing to be mean or brutal in any way, as one reviewer said, and agree with the description on the book jacket itself, that she does not dip to those levels.
Ms. Mehta has a deep understanding of religion and culture, and the importance of knowing who you are and where you come from. She speaks of the confusion that ensues when people cross over and project their own meanings onto a culture of which they have very little true understanding, and she proceeds to explain the cultural differences that often cause confusion. She does it in a playful, satirical, and truthful way, and obviously with compassion for those who have become lost and whose lives have been destroyed.
Karma Cola is also very delightful to read and cleverly written, with some wonderful turns of phrase: the druggy Canadian described as "the chemically inspired dancer"; the warning that any Indian knows that "wheeling and dealing in Karma" is the most dangerous game of all. I found some small parts to be so intense, though, and so densely written that I almost gave up. I'm glad I didn't since the last few chapters were very beautiful and sensitively inspired, with a kind of poignancy and light shining through them.
Karma Cola, which is not very big, can be easily picked up at any place, and has chapters devoted to various types of experience. The stories are deeply human and offer rich variety. A lot of truth here and worth reading, with your feet on the ground and the desire to go on a journey to another country, with open mind. Mehta has BEAUTIFUL writing skills with lush descriptions and English that most of us have lost.
An important cultural book to remind us of our need to respect each other, and a caution about self-delusions and thinking we can own another culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Snide and Condescending
Review: I really loved this book. Sick of the psychobabble approach to the search for meaning indulged in by western hippies and dilettantes? Then this is the book for you. If you remain sceptically detached, then Mehta's bull's-excrement detector will appeal to you. In a world where 'altenatives' are equally as brand-labelled as major corporate product, Mehta turns the heat on the dipsomaniacs and freaks who are so successfully sucked in by the tricksters and con merchants in the great supermarket of 'religious experiences' that India (her country) offers. The book is witty and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, as well as a cautionary tale for those who might be flirting with the cults (who probably wouldn't listen anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Like, wow, man!
Review: I really loved this book. Sick of the psychobabble approach to the search for meaning indulged in by western hippies and dilettantes? Then this is the book for you. If you remain sceptically detached, then Mehta's bull's-excrement detector will appeal to you. In a world where 'altenatives' are equally as brand-labelled as major corporate product, Mehta turns the heat on the dipsomaniacs and freaks who are so successfully sucked in by the tricksters and con merchants in the great supermarket of 'religious experiences' that India (her country) offers. The book is witty and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, as well as a cautionary tale for those who might be flirting with the cults (who probably wouldn't listen anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Karma Cola maintains its fizz...
Review: 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.
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