KARMA COLA: Marketing the Mystic East ...

KARMA COLA: Marketing the Mystic East by Gita Mehta (Vintage: $10; 193 pp.). Citing the admonition in “The Upanishads,” “sacred knowledge in the hands of fools destroys,” Gita Mehta takes a sardonic look at the Indian hucksters who turn ancient spiritual traditions into feel-good consumer products for Western consumers: Nirvana as Happy Meal. Mehta is equally critical of the “gurus” who milk their followers for money, sex and adoration, and the gullible Occidentals who expect instant relief from beliefs predicated on rigorous self-denial. This intercultural commerce is both comic and tragic, leading Mehta to conclude, “if ever the karma was right for the gods to warn Here comes the Judge, it would seem to be now.”