THE FOES

[Ani]

THE FOES

 

Christ says: "Blessed are those, who are persecuted, for great will be their pay in Heaven ". I will explain to you the deep meaning of these words: when you sow a wheat grain, it starts rotting - it is attacked by many foes - microbes, but as soon as it goes up, towards the light, and Sun's rays touch it, its foes all run away. Therefore you also have to be persecuted, so you go up. When Christ says: "Blessed are those, who are persecuted!", it means that blessed are those who grow, form roots, leaves, blossoms, fruits, because their pay, when the Lord comes and finds the ripe fruit, will be great.

 

THE MASTER

 

This took place during one of the councils in Tarnovo. A lot of wasps appeared from somewhere, and bothered the brothers and sisters during their meals. One day the Master, while watching how the wasps attacked people at the tables and in the yard of the villa, made some motions and said some words and formulas. Within minutes all the wasps from the tables and the yard, gathered at one spot and stood there, as if they were dead. The Master prodded them, but they didn't show any signs of life. After that he made other motions and said other words, which made the wasps move around, then they flew away and never came back throughout the summer. After that event the Master said: "I can do the same to all foes of the Brotherhood, but I don't want to ".

 

A student, afer he heard about the Master, decided to go to Izgrev, to play with him. He entered the hall with his secret thought, during a lecture, but soon panicked, when he felt a strong force picking him up on its hands and threw him outside. He didn't have time to realize what had happened.

 

In May 1936 one afternoon, at about 4 o'clock, a man came to Izgrev, probably sent by the foes of the Brotherhood, and he was looking for the Master. Throughout that day the Master was serious, stern and intent. Just before that event, some sisters were with him, but he sent them to their homes. Then brother Ivan Kavaldzhiev came to the Master. They both entered the big hall. In front of the hall there were some brothers, removing the paint from the tables. The man who was sent looked for the Master in the downstairs room, but found it locked and, after he saw that nobody would open the door for him, he started banging at the glass, broke it and cut his hand. Then he saw the Master in the hall, got in and started hitting him on the head with his fists. Because attacker's hands were cut by the broken glass, Master's clothes were sprinkled with blood. After he hit the Master quite a few times, the attacker ran away.

 

On the other day we saw Master's face all in bruises. After some time, a policeman brought the attacker to the Master, to ask him what punishment should be imposed on him. The Master replied: "I forgive him". The attacker apologized and asked forgiveness. Then the Master added: "I forgive you, but pray that the Lord forgives you as well!" This happened in May. The consequences of the beating started to show in June. At first the Master experienced difficulties when moving his right hand, and then his right leg. Later his speech was impaired as well. After St. Peter's day (June 29) the organization for the summer excursion of the Brotherhood to Rila started. They departed on July 4. During the trip the Master found it hard to move, he was dragging his foot, at some places he staggered. When they reached Vadata and started up, a brother on a horse met the group, so that the Master, but he refused and continued on foot.

 

During the days of camping, the Master walked and spoke with difficulties. He didn't climb up the Prayers Peak and read no lectures, but he all the time went for walks, expressed interest in everybody, who came to the camp, observed the reading of the lectures, the paneurhythmy, and the entire brotherly life in general. On the morning of August 12 the Master suddenly changed - the illness disappeared, he moved freely spoke with ease. Later in the day he went to the spring without any problems, walked about in the camp, and in the evening he was there for the common fire. It was a feast for the entire camp. A little time after they returned from camping, a sister told the Master: "You have taught us that if we are sick, we must go up in the mountain, even if we can hardly walk. You did just that." The Master replied: "I must give example."

 

With respect to that attack the Master said that there was a plot to plant a bomb under the floor of the hall and in this way to liquidate the Brotherhood. When he learned about that, he prayed the Lord to prevent that grim event, and to make him the only sufferer. That is how the beating happened.

 

They often called the Master for interrogation at the Police Directorate. Once, after he was interrogated by a chief, he was brought to a burning furnace and threatened: "If you don't renounce your teaching, we'll throw you in the fire!" The master calmly replied: "If God's will is that you do so, you will throw me in. And I will not renounce my teaching!" After a lot more threats and questions they let him go, for they had nothing against him.

 

"On the last day of the council in 1922 we had to go at about 10 a.m. The master had also prepared himself, but soon before that he stopped and addressed us: "You go, I will come alone". Then he sat in the pavilion, propped on his umbrella, which he almost always carried with him. Some people were supposed accompany him to his home, and they wanted us to stay and wait for him. But when we realized this was not what the Master wanted, we all left. The Master remained alone in the pavilion. He called brother Vatev, who was going to spend the night in the hut, and warned him: "When they come, don't resist and let them look everywhere they want". The Brother didn't understand who was going to come and why did the Master speak like that, but several minutes later he saw that soldiers were looking at the hut. Officer Harlakov entered the yard with several soldiers and asked: "Where is Deunov?" The Brothers replied nothing, and the Master was just sitting where he was. The Officer rudely demanded to see the secret room that the priests had been talking that abominations were taking place there. The Brothers Vatev and Kovachev opened the room, which we entered with holy excitement and only for prayer. What the officer saw, was the spiritual mystical setting, arranged with exquisite taste. Lighted by seven icon-lamps, which used to burn day and night, in front of him shone the grand magnificent painting with the face of God. This sight made the officer feel unworthy of stepping in. He just peeked from the door, lowered his head and went out. He approached the pavilion, stood before the Master and asked: "Who are you?". "I am Deunov" - replied the Master. "You are under arrest!" - said the officer and lead him with the soldiers towards the barracks.

 

We had already gone home and were getting ready for bed, when the brothers from the hut came running and scared and told us: "The Master has been arrested!" Kostadin put on his clothes quickly, called brother Ivan Devetakov and Kostadin Petkov and they went to the barracks. They managed to get in the office without any problems and saw the Master, sitting on an armchair, and brother— Kovachev and Vatev were standing next to him. Kostadin told the aide-de-camp Harlakov: "Mr. Deunov is my guest and you have no right to arrest him!" I don't know what else did they say to each other, but the Master and the brothers came back quickly. On the next day some of the brothers were leaving for their homes, because the council had ended, and they came to say their goodbyes to the Master. Velichka Vateva, Velichka Stoycheva and had prepared a fine lunch for everybody. We had just taken our seats around the table, and were saying our prayers as usual, when brother Denyu Tsanev came breathless and warned: "Master, you must leave Tarnovo immediately, or you will be sent under escort!" Without even trying the lunch, the Master packed his luggage and got ready to leave. He gave me the notebooks and all other stuff he was always carrying with himself, and told me to give them back to him, when we met again. On his way out, the sisters and I cried with anxiety. The Master stood before us and asked us: "Why are you crying? Keep your inner peace and don't let anything take that from you, even if you are being torn to pieces!" After we said goodbye to him, no one was willing to eat anymore. We spend all day talking about the Master. On the next day we found out that he had gone for Sofia calm and merry. But after that he had all the councils held in Sofia, and didn't want to come to Tarnovo." - This is what sister Elena remembers.

 

The Master was in Varna and one morning he went out with a group of friends to see the sunrise at Tashli Tepe. On their way back to the city, two policemen, incited by the priests, wanted to arrest him, together with the entire group. Most of the people ran away. At that moment a friend of hours, an officer - N. Grablev, intervened, wanting to save the situation, but it happened so that they had to pass directly through the vines. There the policemen arrested the Master and marched him towards the town hall. On their way there, they passed the house, where the Master lived, and he asked the policemen to let him go in and change his hat, for he was wearing an old one. But the policeman did not allow him to do so, but hit him on the back with the butt and shouted at him to move forward. After he learned about that Grablev instructed the aide-de-camp of the garrison chief to observe what happened to that policeman for one month. It wasn't even thirty days, when the aide-de-camp told Grablev on the phone, at the border outpost, where Grablev was serving, that the policeman was killed during a village fair - he was trying to separate two fighting villagers. When the Master appeared before the Chief of Police, he told him that he just wanted to meet him, acted very politely and let him go immediately.

 

Once the Master was called on to the Public Safety Department with respect to an investigation. Among other things, the investigator told him: "You, Mr. Deunov, avenge your opponents - that is what the newspapers say. Whoever had bothered you, then died suddenly." The Master replied calmly: "I don't avenge, I only give my blessings. But it's not my fault, if a small moth wants to extinguish a great fire with its wings? I am a great Divine fire and whoever tries to extinguish it, will burn in it himself. I have no fault for that!" The investigator bounced on his chair: "But you making threats, Mr. Deunov, and I am going to arrest you!" The master calmly replied that he wasn't threatening anybody and explained that everybody who works against the Divine, will suffer. He gave him one more example: "Imagine that a bottle hits a rock, is it going to break? I am the rock, you are the bottle. If you hit me, you will break. Would I be to blame, then?" The investigator attacked verbally the Master with a vengeance, and he just replied: "Be careful or you will be killed in two months!" And so it happened - two months after that what the Master had said, was fulfilled.

 

During the peak of the campaign of the newspapers against the Master and the Brotherhood, the director of the Public Safety Department went to him in person, at 66, Opalchenska str., and with a stern voice, ordered him to discontinue any lectures, talks and receptions, for it would be seen as deception of the general public. The Master listened to him calmly for an hour. On his way out the director once again ordered him very sternly to stop any activity. The Master looked at him gently, smiled and said: "Soon you will see that you're one of us as well." The Director got very angry, reminded the Master his order once again and went away. Soon after that this Director was accused of numerous crimes and was sentenced to death. Later the death penalty was replaced by a life sentence. In prison he was able to study in detail Master's lectures and adopted his teaching. Seven and a half years later he was pardoned and became a regular disciple of the Master.

 

The priests constantly caused trouble for the Master. Under their influence, an officer came to a council and said that the authorities had forbidden any public lectures outside - lectures were allowed only inside. And people were many and the hall couldn't accommodate them all. The Master was reading the lecture on a lawn and he his subject was "Inside and outside", proving that they were actually inside. The officer remained satisfied with the lecture and even thanked him.

 

When, during the bombings in 1944 the Master was in Marchaevo, the priest of the village, together with a group of hostile villagers, initiated a campaign against him. Electric lighting was then being installed in the village. For that reason an improvised meeting took place in the pub, which was also attended by the priest and the people, who had negative attitude towards the Master. Heated up by the wine, the priest announced solemnly to the meeting, that he declared war on Mr. Deunov and threatened to cut Deunov's beard and drive him out of the village. Then the mayor addressed him with the following advice: "Don't bother Deunov, he is a god man and has done nothing wrong". But this made the priest even angrier and he insisted on what he'd said. The Mayor was hurt, and when everybody left, he went to the Master and told him, about priest's threats. The Master didn't say anything, except reassuring the brother that he shouldn't worry and that everything was going to be fine. Several days later it became known that the priest was very ill with pneumonia. After one week he departed to the other world. After that event, the thoughtless people, who urged the priest to start a campaign against the Master, got all quiet and nobody heard anything about that.

 

The next story is that of brother Georgi Kurtev from Aytos. During the first years of the life of the Brotherhood, the local priest in Aytos spoke a lot against the brothers, the sisters and the Master. The younger, boisterous and newly admitted to the Brotherhood, decided to give the priest a beating, in order to teach him a lesson and make them leave them alone. When they had just decided that, brother Georgi received a letter from the Master, in which he warned them: "You want to beat-up the priest! If you do that Heaven will remove its benevolence from you, but if you endure, Heaven will take note of your patience and fix things". They gave up their decision and here's what happened: the important people in town, who knew brother Georgi, heard that the priest constantly spoke against him. Without Georgi ever telling them anything, they called the priest and told him: "Father, you have just come to our town and have immediately started a campaign against Georgi Kurtev and his friends. We've grown up together with Georgi and know him much better than you. So we are warning you to stop dealing with him, or you can just take you things and leave." After that the priest stopped attacking the brothers.