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The Meeting with Alexander Stamboliiski


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The Meeting with Alexander Stamboliiski

Prime Minister Alexander Stamboliiski personally addressed Peter Dunov and invited him for a meeting. In July 1922 the Brotherhood was camping in the Sokolets area in the Rila Mountains, at the foot of the highest summit, Moussala. On the 26th of July the Master, accompanied by Petko Epitropov, rode down to Chamkoria (today's Borovets resort). Around 5 p.m., Stamboliiski welcomed his guests in front of his residence. Petko Epitropov took notes of the conversation between the two prominent Bulgarians.

"Stamboliiski: I wanted to meet you because there has been much stir in the press and in the Synod of the Eastern Orthodox church about you and your teaching. I would like to know about your teaching, about the principles you follow. Are you a religious sect, or some sort of a society? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in the Eastern Orthodox Church? Do you believe in the icons, in the rituals? Do you have your own rituals in your society and in your teaching? How many members do you have?

Dunov: We follow the teaching of Love, the teaching of Christ, which is Love, Wisdom, and Truth. We seek the truth of soul, light of mind and purity of heart. We try not only to believe in these principles but live them and manifest them in society, preparing thus to be of help to all humanity. We are not opposed to the Orthodox Church but its ministers have strayed from the path of their calling and serve the dark lodge of their leaders, deceiving the entire Bulgarian people and turning service into a trade.

Stamboliiski: This is true. No priest is there because this is his calling; it is just a career, a way to gain a position. Now they want to divert you and us from the church. But I know this; when there are too many sinners in a country, they lay their sins at the door of the pure.

Dunov: At first our society started working with the Church to elevate it, but the persecution to which the clergy subjected us made us abandon this work. Besides, we could see that they were unwilling to take part in our service or to accept the supreme divine principles taught by Christ the Saviour and His disciples. As regards the icons and the rituals, these have been adopted by the Greek church which never went deeper into Christianity than its superficial glitter. Inside the Eastern Orthodox Church, there is a lot of darkness and discord; what it has adopted and applies to Christianity is obsolete. Young people are not satisfied with old traditions, they want something modern, capable of giving them light and scope for thought.

Stamboliiski: You are right. Young people cannot be satisfied with what the priests have to offer them, and their wicked deeds discourage the young to go to church.

Dunov: The Church is in need of a reform, and the reform would consist in changing the ministers. They should serve with purity and sinlessness, in the name of the spirit and the Truth. The young generation should be given the food that its development demands.

Stamboliiski: Why don't you declare a war on the Church?

Dunov: We are not proponents of war.

Stamboliiski: They accuse you of meeting the sunrise and worshipping it.

Dunov: The rising sun has a psychological effect. The members of our society go out about half an hour or an hour before the sunrise, each of them concentrates and restores his internal peace and harmony. They benefit from the first rays of the sun which have a vitalizing and refreshing effect. The soft light of the rising sun extends the heart and the mind. It is highly beneficial and we wish to take advantage of it."

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Chamkoria, 1921.

On the 30th of July, only a few days after the meeting with Stamboliiski, Peter Dunov delivered a lecture in the forest in Chamkoria. That lecture was a brilliant substantiation of the New Teaching. In it, the Master first answered in full detail the questions posed by Stamboliiski for the spiritually more advanced part of the audience. Again his arguments were based on a passage from the Scriptures: "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee." In this passage, Peter suggests that Jesus should yield to His enemies to avoid suffering. This was a symbol of the meeting with Stamboliiski who had tried to suggest that Peter Dunov escape trouble by obeying the clergy. The Master, however, was adamant: "They say it is not the right time, and that if we apply our teaching we will suffer, that we will be rejected by society and lose. I say no! This is the right time. There are two ways in which this teaching can be implemented. The one is through education in schools, and the other through the mothers. Tell me, what does it gain, the society that may reject us? What will the members of this society gain one day by rejecting us? One day they will be dead." A year after their meeting, Alexander Stamboliiski was assassinated in a coup d'etat. At the time of the events, Peter Dunov was in Tarnovo, with the Ilarionov family. As he was reading at the table, he suddenly spoke; "They killed Stamboliiski." "Is it in the newspapers," the host asked. "No, the crime is taking place now."

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