Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden (link)
was a prominent German researcher and academic who contributed greatly to the
formation of the Theosophical Society in Germany, and we know that he received four
letters from the Masters.
And below I will give you a description of each of them:
* * * * * * *
The first letter was received on
August 1, 1884, when he and Colonel Olcott were traveling on the train from Elberfeld to Dresden, and this letter says:
« To be accepted as a disciple on
probation – is an easy thing. To become an accepted disciple – is to
court the miseries of “probation”. Life in the ordinary run is not entirely
made up of heavy trials and mental misery: the life of a disciple who offers
himself voluntarily is one of long sacrifice.
He, who would control hereafter the events of his life here and beyond,
has first of all to submit himself to be controlled, yet triumph over every
temptation, every woe of flesh and mind.
The disciple “on probation” is like the wayfarer in the old fable of the
sphinx; only the one question becomes a long series of every day riddles
propounded by the Sphinx of Life, who sits by the wayside, and who, unless her
ever changing and perplexing puzzles are successfully answered one after the
other, impedes the progress of the traveler and finally destroys him.
Let Henry Steel Olcott explain what he knows of discipleship. We refuse no one. “Spheres
of usefulness” can be found everywhere. The first object of the Society
is philanthropy. The true theosophist is the Philanthropist who – “not for
himself, but for the world he lives.” In this direction much is already
achieved by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden.
This, and philosophy – the right comprehension of life and its mysteries
– will give “the necessary basis” and show the right pathway to pursue.
Yet the best sphere of usefulness for the applicant is now in Germany.
When complications arise and there comes a new development,
he will be advised. His health will be looked after: for the present as
little writing as possible. “The Father M.·.” [Morya] is in no mood of
answering. I do so for him.
K.H. »
And upon learning of that event, Madame Blavatsky wrote a
letter to Dr. Wilhelm to ask him to explain how it happened, and Dr. Wilhelm
sent him a letter answering the following:
« Elberfeld, August, 1884.
Dear Madam,
You requested me to state to you
the particular circumstances under which I received my first communication from
Mahatma K.H. I have much pleasure in
doing so.
On the morning of the 1st of this
month Colonel Olcott and I were travelling by an express train from here to
Dresden. A few days before I had written
a letter to the Mahatmas which Colonel Olcott had addressed and enclosed to
you, which, however, as I now hear, never reached you but was taken by the
Masters whilst it was in the hands of the post officials.
At the time mentioned I was not
thinking of this letter, but was relating to Colonel Olcott some events of my
life, expressing also the fact that since my sixth or seventh year I had never
known peace or joy, and asking Colonel Olcott’s opinion on the meaning of some
striking hardships I have gone through.
In this conversation we were
interrupted by the railway-guard demanding our tickets, and when I moved
forwards and raised myself partly from the seat in order to hand over the
tickets, Colonel Olcott noticed something white lying behind my back on that
side of me which was opposite to the one where he was sitting.
When I took up that which had
appeared there it turned out to be a Tibetan envelope, in which I found a
letter from Mahatma K.H., written with blue pencil in his well-known and
unmistakable handwriting. As there were
several other persons unacquainted to us in the compartment, I suppose the Master
chose this place for depositing the letter near me where it was the least
likely to attract the unwelcome attention and curiosity of outsiders.
The envelope was plainly
addressed to me, and the communication contained in the letter was a consoling
reflection on the opinion which I had five or ten minutes ago given on the
dreary event of my past life.
The Mahatma explained that such
events and the mental misery attached to it were beyond the ordinary run of
life, but that hardships of all kinds would be the lot of one striving for
higher spiritual development.
He very kindly expressed his
opinion that I had already achieved some philanthropic work for the good of the
world. In this letter were also answered
some of the questions which I had put in my first-mentioned letter, and an
assurance was given me that I was to receive assistance and advice when I
should be in need of it.
I dare say it would be
unnecessary for me to ask you to inform the Mahatma of the devoted thankfulness
which I feel towards him for the great kindness shown to me, for the Master
will know of my sentiments without my forming them into more or less inadequate
words.
I am, dear madam, in due respect,
yours faithfully,
HÜBBE-SCHLEIDEN. »
And later when a member of the Society for Psychical
Investigations in London questioned him about that event, Dr. Wilhelm answered
the following:
« Elberfeld, 9/11/84.
Dear Sir,
In reply to your question about
the letter from Mahatma K.H., which I received in a railway carriage of an
express train while in motion, I beg to say that it appears to me absolutely
impossible that the letter could have been brought into the train by any
supposed agent of Madame Blavatsky’s.
It is true we had not changed
carriages since leaving Elberfeld, but the letter did not at all fall out of
the air, but was found behind my back when I moved, and must, therefore, have
been deposited between my back and the cushion of the seat against which I was
lying.
There was no possibility of
getting there for any matter in one of the three or four aggregate states known
to our Western science. Besides, Madame Blavatsky could have nothing to
do with this letter, which was a reply to questions which I had written on Tuesday,
the 29th July, and which left Elberfeld on that or the following day for London,
addressed to Madame Blavatsky.
Now, these questions could not
have been delivered in London before Thursday or Friday of that week, and a
reply could, in the ordinary postal way, not have been in Elberfeld before
Saturday or Sunday.
The event of my receiving the
reply of the Mahatma, however, occurred on Friday morning, the 1st
August. I may mention here that Madame B. assured me she never found my
questions enclosed in the letter to her; these must have been taken out while
in the hands of the post.
My best proof of the genuineness
of this phenomenon, I find, though, is the contents of the letter, for it was
not only a reply to the said questions, but also referred to the conversation I
was just at that time having with Colonel Olcott.
I cannot doubt that this
handwriting of the Mahatma must, therefore, have been precipitated by him at
that very instant and transmitted to me by a magic process which lies beyond
the power of ordinary man.
I am, dear sir, yours very truly,
HÜBBE-SCHLEIDEN. »
(Source:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/schleidenlettersspr.htm)
* * * * * * *
The next two letters, Dr. Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden
received them the last time he went to visit Blavatsky in January 1886 in
Würzburg, and about that event Dr. Schleiden narrated:
« Thus I had many opportunities to
learn a good deal from her and about her, all the more so as she was always
exceedingly kind to me and very seldom grew tired of my many questions.
I saw almost all the phenomena that she did at the Gebhard's mansion, and
several times I noticed that she could evidently read other people's thoughts.
When I visited her in October, 1885, she had just begun to write it, and
in January, 1886, she had finished about a dozen chapters. She was writing at
her manuscript almost all day, from the early morning until the afternoon and
even until night, unless she had guests.
At that time she wrote articles for The Theosophist as well.
I also saw her write down sentences as if she were copying them from
something before her, where, however, I saw nothing!
I did not pay much attention to the manner of her work from the
standpoint of a hunter of phenomena, and did not control it for that purpose;
but I know that I saw a good deal of the well-known blue K.H. handwriting as
corrections and annotations on her manuscripts as well as in books that lay
occasionally on her desk.
And I noticed this principally in the morning before she had commenced
to work. I slept on the couch in her study after she had withdrawn for the
night, and the couch stood only a few feet from her desk.
I remember well my astonishment one morning when I got up to find a great
many pages of foolscap covered with that blue pencil handwriting lying on her
own manuscript, at her place on her desk.
How these pages got there?
I do not know, but I did not see them before I went to sleep and no
person had been bodily in the room during the night, for I am a light sleeper.
I must say though that the view I took then was the same that I hold
now. I never did and never shall judge of the value or the origin of any mental
product from the way and manner in which it is produced. And for this reason I
withheld my opinion then, thinking and saying:
"I shall wait until The Secret
Doctrine is finished and then I can read it quietly; that will be the test for
me, the only one that will be any good."
This is the reason why on the night of my last parting from Madame
Blavatsky, the two certificates which were printed for the first time in the
last April number of The Path, page 2, were given tome. At least I found them materialized
in my copy of Hodgson’s S.P.R. Report after I had left her. »
(Source: Hübbe-Schleiden´s
comentarie published in the Countess Wachtmeister’s book “Reminiscences of H.P.
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine,” Appendix 1, Note 6)
A reproduction of one of the two Chinese envelopes in each
of which Masters Kuthumi and Morya sent their letters to Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden
about the triple authorship of The Secret Doctrine.
The letter that Master Kuthumi wrote to him said the following:
« I wonder if this note of mine is
worthy of occupying a select spot with the documents reproduced, and which of
the peculiarities of the “Blavatskian” style of writing it will be found to
most resemble?
The present is simply to satisfy the Dr. that – “the more proof given
the less believed”. Let him take my advice and not make these two documents
public. It is for his own satisfaction that the undersigned is happy to assure
him that The Secret Doctrine when ready, will be the triple production
of M.·. [Morya], Upasika [Blavatsky] and the Doctor’s most humble servant. –
K.H. [Kuthumi]
S.E.C. »
A facsimile reproduction in black and white of Master Kuthumi's letter.
And the letter that Master Morya wrote to him said the
following:
« If this can be of any use or help to
Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden (though I doubt it) I, the humble undersigned Fakir
certify that the “Secret Doctrine” is dictated to Upasika partly by myself and
partly by my Brother K.H. – M. »
A facsimile reproduction in black and white of Master Morya's letter.
Note: in the originals, the Master Kuthumi's letter is written in blue letters and the Master Morya's letter is written in red letters.
I have found the color facsimile of the Master Morya's letter:
.
* * * * * * *
And the last letter is a note from Master Morya that says
the following:
« You may stop till beginning of
next week and go with Mrs. Gebhard but you have to be [in] Paris on Tuesday
[at] latest. Send for letters and tell William Judge [about the triple authorship of The Secret Doctrine]. You have made yourself an
irreconcilable enemy of Anna Kingsford, so now there's no help for it. Ask Mr. Sinnett
to help you on Secret Doctrine at once if he and others would learn more of
occultism.
M.·. »
_ _ _
Dr. Schleiden left these letters to his friend Mr. Driessen, and he later
lent them to the Theosophical Society of Adyar, which transcribed them in his
book entitled “Letters from the Masters
of Wisdom”, second series, Letters N°68-71). It is not known whether these letters are still extant.
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