Interrogating the Self: Demythologizing the Discourse of Nirvana in Gita Mehta's Karma Cola

Abstract

This is a study of demythologization of the concept of Nirvana (selfactualization) as elucidated in Gita Mehta’s Karma Cola. The study is an attempt to decanonize, delegitimize, deconstruct, and destabilize the metanarrative of the “Self,” functioning within an Orientalist discourse that forms the crux of the ideation, dissemination, and preservation of mythic structures of the Oriental, especially spiritual, tradition. Existentialism is employed as an analytical tool to illustrate the insincerity of the thesis of enlightenment and the angst ensuing from disenchantment at the failure of the quest for mystical panacea within Eastern religious ethics.