Krishna and the Kwisatz Haderach

August 2, 2009 in Characters, Inspiration, Plot, Writers

In the past couple of years, I have been fortunate enough to get the chance of reading the Dune series of novels. Written by Frank Herbert, the first book was published in 1965. And in 1966, the book won the Hugo Award and also the Nebula Award for Best Novel. A series of at least 7 novels (the last of which was finished by his son Brian Herbert), the scope of these series of novels is vast and amazing.

Of course, the series of novels had a great impact on me: first as a writer, I was spellbound by the way the author has constructed the fictional world and its mythology, geography, rituals – the whole jazz (this is called as ‘World Building‘ by most sci-fi authors); and, secondly as a tarot card reader the philosophy and the pros and cons of prescience and the ability to see (and even meddle with) the future is something that certainly made me think.

Among other things, the novel talks about a Kwisatz Haderach or a super-being. Such a super-being has been defined in the book as ‘the one who can be in many places at once’. In the novel, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood has been involved in a breeding program. The aim of this breeding program is to create this Kwisatz Haderach. Along with unlimited powers of prescience, this super-being would also be able to predict several possible futures and select certain threads from among the different time-lines, so as to manipulate and create a particular future to happen.

Growing up a Hindu, we have always been regaled by the stories of Krishna. We heard stories of his mischievous childhood, of his inimitable teenage years, and then his exploits as an adult, followed by his role in the Mahabharata where he divulged the text of one of the most sacred books of the Hindus, the Bhagwat Gita. As a human being, and as a God, Krishna stood for what is considered to be the poorna purusham – the complete man.

Krishna is considered to be the Avataar of Vishnu. He is also said to be all knowing, all seeing, and aware of the past, present and future. All this, is also combined with the power to change the future, and the ability to ‘be at many places at once’ (remember the ‘Raas Lila‘ where he simultaneously appeared to be dancing with Radha and all of her friends).

It just struck me a few days ago, that the qualities described in the book – the qualities of a Kwisatz Haderach, are pretty much the qualities that Krishna possesses.

Often enough, myths and mythological characters / ‘Gods and Goddesses’ are the sources of inspiration for many a good heroes, heroines or special / central characters of many a well known and well loved stories.

Now, I don’t know if Krishna was the source of inspiration for Frank Herbert for his template of the character of the Kwisatz Haderach. But one thing that I certainly do know is that the characteristics possessed by Krishna and the Kwisatz Haderach are pretty much similar.

Myths and Mythological characters are the main sources of inspiration for many a interesting stories – and even plots. After all, these Myths were in fact, the first stories ever told.

I personally also feel that these character sketches of these Gods and Goddesses are based on real people – perhaps a mixture of 2 or more real people, plus with a whole bunch of other characteristics that often we may like to see in us / other people. The characters of Gods often are personifications of certain good qualities which we idealize and want to idolize. But then too much perfection doesn’t set in well with our perception of any particular character. So we end up throwing in some ‘human’ characteristic or two.

In the same spirit, I feel that the characterization of Krishna and the Kwisatz Haderach are based on the similar blueprint or model.