Tantrika...traveling the Road of Divine Love

by Asra Q. Nomani

When I began this trip, I had jetted to the Best Western in Santa Cruz, California, to learn the secrets of sexual ecstasy. For a little over four years, I confronted dualities, and they confronted me. Hinduism versus Islam. East versus West. Male energy versus female. True spirituality versus false opportunism. I had to choose the values with which I wanted to live.

Tantrika tells the compelling story of a woman whose world travels and spiritual journey bring her face-to-face with the most fundamental dichotomy of her identity. Born in India and raised in the foothills of West Virginia, Nomani moves away from her Muslim upbringing to pursue the Hindu and Buddhist path of divine love.

What began as a professional assignment for the Wall Street Journal to write about America’s hottest new fad, Tantra, became a very personal odyssey. While Tantra is popularly conceived as an ancient form of yoga or as "sacred sex," the author's Muslim parents warn her it is a cult of black magic. In her search for the full story, Nomani travels from Santa Cruz to the feet of the Dalai Lama in Northern India, from meditation caves in Thailand to the homes of orthodox Muslims in Pakistan. Nomani's journey through the geography of her own spiritual conflict is a journey of self-discovery, of reconciling her Hindu ancestry and Muslim upbringing. She confronts darkness in ways she could never have imagined, but ultimately finds the path of the divine within herself and all women -- all "tantrikas."

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Religion

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Catherine Auman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has nothing to do with tantra, and the author has the word "tantrika" confused with the word "feminist." While a tantrika may or may not be a feminist and vice versa, they are not the same thing. This book should be titled, my search to find myself which is not particularly interesting to anyone else.

[Kay Baird · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept expecting details about what Tantra means to Nomani, about what her spiritual practice consists of. Instead I got details of her relationships with men, the story. It was an interesting story, but not particularly useful in my quest.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am glad ot learn that I'm not the only one who struggled with this book. For the better part of it, it is quite rambling. Nomani introduces concepts and imagery backwards, explaining them after the fact, and skips around in time confusingly. The names, nicknames and honorifics of her relatives all start to blur together, especially when she refers to one person multiple ways and multipe people with the same words.

You also don't learn as much about Tantra reading this as you might hope. I'm honestly not sure she learned a lot about it either, although it is obvious she grew spiritually.

The book really only starts to find it's footing in the last few chapters, with the loss of her friend Daniel Pearl and her unplanned pregnancy. That's where "Tantrika" really becomes compelling. There are also interesting notes on Muslim history and different Muslim schools of law...but again, they're late in the book. I am neither surprised nor offended to hear from people who didn't get that far.

[Shelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Horribly written. I gave up after 105 pages. Rambling, disjointed, has nothing to do with Tantra. It's the author's quest for identity, but she is a silly, unlikeable person. It might be useful as a tool in creative writing classes, as an example of poor, ineffective writing.

[Amar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book that I really related to. Its an autobiography of sorts for the author. I really enjoyed reading about her travels and experiences.

[Asra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I also gave up on this book a few chapters into. I am not critic on style, but the writing felt like rambling

[Mariam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started reading it several times but couldn't really continue.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't keep my interest