Peter Deunov

Peter Deunov

Peter Deunov /ˈdʌnɒv/ (Bulgarian: Петър

Дънов, IPA: ['pɛtər 'dɤnof]; July 11, 1864
– December 27, 1944), also known by his
spiritual name Beinsa Douno (Bulgarian:
Беинса Дуно, [bɛinˈsа duˈnɔ]), and often
called the Master by his followers, was a
Bulgarian philosopher and spiritual
teacher who developed a form of
Esoteric Christianity known as the
Universal White Brotherhood. He is
widely known in Bulgaria, where he was
voted second by the public in the Great
Bulgarians TV show on Bulgarian
National Television (2006-2007).[1]
Deunov is also featured in Pantev and
Gavrilov's The 100 Most Influential
Bulgarians in Our History (ranked in 37th
place).[2] According to Petrov, Peter
Deunov is “the most published Bulgarian
author to this day.”[3]

Biography
Early life

Peter Deunov was born in the village of

Hadardja (now Nikolaevka in Suvorovo
Municipality) near Varna, Bulgaria on July
11, 1864, the third child of Konstantin
Dunovsky and Dobra Atanasova
Georgieva. His father was the first
Bulgarian teacher in the region before
becoming a Bulgarian Orthodox priest.
He was one of the first to present the
liturgy in Bulgarian, the language of the
local people, rather than the traditional
sacred language of Church Slavonic (Old
Bulgarian).[4]

Deunov attended secondary school in

Varna and the American Methodist
School of Theology and Science in
Svishtov, from which he graduated in
1886. He worked as a primary school
teacher for a year before leaving for the
United States, where he studied theology
at Drew Theological Seminary in
Madison, New Jersey, from 1888 to May
1892. After graduating from Drew, in the
fall of 1892 he enrolled in the Boston
University School of Theology and
obtained his degree in June 1893 with a
thesis on "The Migration of the Germanic
Tribes and Their Christianisation"
(published in 2007[5]). He was a regular
student at the School of Medicine of
Boston University for a year, before
returning to Bulgaria in 1895.

Return to Bulgaria

Upon his return to Bulgaria Deunov was

offered the position of a Methodist
pastor in the city of Yambol. This offer
was withdrawn after he stipulated he
would only serve without remuneration.
In 1896 he published Science and
Education, in which he analyzed the
development of mankind into a new
culture, which he thought was bound to
take place during the forthcoming
century. After the turn of the century,
Deunov began to travel throughout
Bulgaria for several years, giving talks
and undertaking phrenological research.
He met with a wide circle of people.
Among them were his first three
disciples, who had belonged to different
branches of Christianity – Todor
Stoimenov (Eastern Orthodox), Dr.
Mirkovich (Catholic) and Penyu Kirov
(Protestant). After a long
correspondence, all of them met in Varna
during 19–23 July 1900. It is considered
the first annual convention of what later
became a spiritual community that
lasted until the end of Deunov's life.
Deunov eventually settled in Sofia, the
capital of Bulgaria, and began giving
lectures.

In 1914 he gave his first public lecture,

Behold, the Man! (Ecce Homo in Latin),
published later in the series Power and
Life. Deunov began to give regular
Sunday lectures which were based on the
elaboration and explanation of a Biblical
passage.

Grave of Peter Deunov in "Izgrev" estate, Sofia,

Bulgaria
In 1921 the community Izgrev (Sunrise)
was established. A site at what were then
the outskirts of Sofia, it was the
gathering place in the mornings for
Deunov and his disciples. Many followers
started building nearby and the place
eventually became the center of a large
spiritual community. Deunov gave
lectures in the newly constructed Lecture
Hall. In 1922 he initiated two new
streams of specialized lectures in
addition to the Sunday lectures, and from
1930 began delivering “morning talks” on
Sunday mornings before dawn. The
themes of the different lecture streams
were wide-ranging and encompassed,
among others: religion, music, geometry,
astrology, philosophy and esoteric
science. Overall, Deunov gave
approximately 3700 lectures in the three
decades between 1914 and 1944. His
thoughts were also recorded in talks,
private conversations, and early letters.[6]

Paneurhythmy

Paneurhythmy near Bubreka (Kidney) lake in Rila

In 1932, he developed Paneurhythmy

exercises: a sequence of exercises
performed to music, to achieve inner
balance and harmonization. This practice
promotes the processes of self-
perfecting, expanding of the
consciousness and attaining of virtues.
The circle dance, is a conscious
interchange between human beings and
the forces of living nature. Each
movement is the expression of a
thought. The effect should be that the
observer picks up from the movements,
the thought or the idea they express. The
rhythm in the movement of the physical
body leads us to one in our spiritual
life.[7]
Etymologically, "Pan-Eu-Rhythmy" is
derived from three roots:

Pan - meaning Whole; Universal and

Cosmic.
Eu - meaning True or Supreme; the
essential and substantial in the world.
Rhythmy - meaning correctness in the
movements and in every other external
expression in life.

Late life

On March 22, 1939 he wrote a message

to his disciples entitled "The Eternal
Covenant of the Spirit." At the beginning
of 1944, during the air bombardments
over Sofia, he organized the evacuation
to the village of Marchaevo (24 km
southwest of Sofia) and settled in the
home (now museum) of his pupil
Temelko Gyorev. He returned to Izgrev on
October 19, 1944. On December 20,
1944, he delivered the lecture "The Last
Word" to the Common Occult Class and
died on 27 December.[8]

Legacy
Several thousand of Deunov's lectures
were recorded by stenographers and are
documented in the form of deciphered
stenograms (some modified by editing
and others left intact [9]). These contain
the essence of Deunov's teaching. There
are also a number of songs and prayers,
among which The Good Prayer from 1900
is regarded as the most special.[4]

Pope John XXIII called Peter Deunov

"the greatest philosopher living on the
Earth". [10]

References
1. Bulgarian National Television - "The
Great Bulgarians",
http://welcome.bnt.bg/movies/veliki
tebg.php?id=12 , Accessed July 17,
2014
2. Pantev, A.L. and Gavrilov, B.G., The
100 Most Influential Bulgarians in
Our History (in Bulgarian “100-те