Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love – A Journalist's Dangerous Global Investigation into Faith and Self-Discovery

by Asra Q. Nomani

A Foreign Correspondent's Search for Her Cultural and Spiritual Identity

What began as an assignment from her editor at the Wall Street Journal to investigate "America's hottest new fad," the secrets of sexual ecstasy in Tantra, became a story that would lead reporter Asra Nomani halfway around the world and change forever her life, faith, and self-identity. From a New Age Tantric seminar in Santa Cruz to sitting at the feet of the Dalai Lama in India, from meditation caves in Thailand to crossing the Khyber Pass with Muslim militants and staring down the barrel of an Afghan soldier's AK-47, Nomani's trek unexpectedly climaxes in Pakistan, where she risks great danger in joining the hunt for kidnapped fellow reporter Danny Pearl. She travels the globe in search of this elusive "divine love," but ultimately hers is a journey of self-discovery in which the divine within herself and within all women -- all "tantrikas" -- is revealed.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Religion

304 pages, 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