My family and I lived for fifteen years in a
mixed-race neighborhood, with African-Americans, whites and Latinos, in Denver,
Colorado. I had the pleasure of interacting with and exploring my neighbors’
experiences and views of America.
As an initiated Hindu Vaishnava priest, I was also active
in Interfaith circles and spoke at various churches and conferences. This
resulted in friendships with black pastors and inspired me to seek a deeper
understanding of African-American history and spirituality. It is these experiences
that led me to write Karma Nation.
Presented as a literary romance, Karma Nation
follows the arc of two characters: Sam DeVon Johnson, a proud young black man,
and Chantley Armstrong, a white American woman who grew up in an ashram in
India.
The intense feelings aroused by a chance encounter in
Boulder, Colorado suggest that they share a relationship from previous lives.
Chantley sees the world through the eyes of karma.
“Everyone acts according to their karma,” she says, “maybe even entire
nations.”
Deeply concerned with American injustice, racism and
militarism, he asks, “What can you say about a country that starts its history
with a slavery and a genocide? What kind of karma is that?”
Discovering that they may have been lovers at a plantation
in South Carolina during the antebellum period, they journey through the South,
visiting places and people connected to America’s troubled past and uncertain
present.
As they fall deeper in love, their travel exposes conflicts
whose origins neither is able to explain. They locate their plantation near
Charleston, South Carolina, but its exploration reveals a shocking truth about
the real nature of their relationship—one that makes them question who they
are, their deep-seated beliefs and the meaning of love.
Karma Nation
is, in short, an exploration of American cultural and racial attitudes as seen
through the ethos of Hinduism. It is also the engaging story of two
quirky characters who, having to overcome their own issues, grow towards
maturity and love. I invite all of you to enjoy this book.
Mohan Ashtakala is the author of The Yoga Zapper, published by Books We Love.
