Vaklush Tolev

In 2017 Pope Francis requested a revision of the same text from the prayer and pointed out that the French bishops had introduced corrections after which the phrase sounds like ‘Do not allow us to fall into temptation’. This variation was officially accepted by the Vatican in 2013 and Francis considered it to be more faithful. ‘I am the one who has fallen into temptation, and it is not He who has pushed me towards it,’ comments Pope Francis.

Vaklush Tolev ‘remained forever’ in this world on the 27-th of November 2013. In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated on the 31-st of July 2014 and a portion of his ashes was scattered at the Cliffs of Orpheus in the Rhodope mountain range, Pamporovo.

· The Spiritual Gifts of Bulgaria, Volume 2, 2012

· The Spiritual Gifts of Bulgaria, Volume I, 2010

· Scattered Pearls (collection of poems), 2008

· Scattered Pearls, a collection of verse, 2008

· Esoteric Schools and Mystic Teachings, Volume II, part II, 2001

· An Almanac of the Messages of the Planetary Logos, 2001

In 2000 the center called ‘The House of Wisdom’ opened its doors in Plovdiv, intended as an Academy of Knowledge’ and a prototype of the Temple of the Future – without an altar or rites. Attached to it is the working library ‘Slovo’ (meaning ‘Word’ or ‘Speech’), which gathers literature in almost all branches of knowledge with priority being given to the sections ‘Philosophy’, ‘History’, ‘Cultural Studies’, ‘Esoteric Sciences’, and ‘Religion’. It boasts a wealth of reference works, while what makes it unique is the collection of original material authored by the Teacher, Vaklush Tolev, and the Society created by him: books, periodicals, video, audio, photographic and text materials. The 1-st of November, the Day of the National Enlighteners of Bulgaria, is also commemorated as the Day of the House of Wisdom.

The association was established under the name ‘The Way of Wisdom Society’ on the 13-th of October 1999 in the capital city Sofia, having functioned from the 13-th of October 1992 until that point as the ‘Forum for Spiritual Culture’ (or, at the very beginning, the ‘Centre for Spiritual Development’) attached to the Sirius Club for the Study and Preservation of Nature and Human Achievements in the cultural capital of Bulgaria, Plovdiv. Its headquarters are also in Plovdiv.

· Esoteric Schools and Mystic Teachings, Volume II, part I, 1995

From 1993, the lectures began to appear on the book market in the form of a magazine consisting of original authorial material. Vaklush Tolev named it ‘Nur’. In translation from the Arabic the word means ‘an immaterial light that never goes out’, or ‘The heavenly light on Earth.’

· An index by subject of ‘Nur’ magazine for the period 1993–2013, 2013

· The History and Theory of Religions, Volume I, 1992 and 2000

After the events of the 10th of November 1989, he got actively involved in the activities of the party ‘Bulgarian Democratic Forum’, the heir to the Bulgarian Legions. In 1991 he was invited to give lectures in the history of religions in the Universities of Plovdiv and of Sofia. The people around Vaklush Tolev gradually began to attend to the organisation of public lectures and speeches in different cities as well as their documentation by means of audio and video recordings, while from 1992 a start was made on publishing projects as well. The need for an organised existence led to the creation of a social body, which has undergone development over the years – both in terms of name and in terms of structure. Today it is the non-profit association ‘The Way of Wisdom Society’.

After the political changes from the 10-th of November 1989 onwards, Vaklush Tolev began to deliver regular public lectures in universities and cultural centres throughout the whole of Bulgaria, most of which are documented in the form of audio and video recordings. The subject matter is diverse and wide-ranging – from the extraction of the kernel in world religions and esoteric schools and teachings to the formulation of entirely new concepts and ideas, while special attention is devoted to illuminating subjects from Bulgarian history as well.

Later – with great difficulty, as ‘an enemy of the people’ – he managed to graduate in theology from the Theological Seminary in Sofia, which was the only autonomous institute of learning at the time, completing five years of the study programme in only 18 months. Already in the first year, he was excluded ‘on the orders of the Central Committee (of the Communist Party)’, but he was reinstated after the intercessions of people at the highest levels of the administration in whom his character had inspired respect. He graduated in 1968 with a speech/sermon, taking its title from the Biblical expression of Pontius Pilate, ‘Ecce Homo’ – ‘Behold the Man’.

He was freed on the 15th of August 1956, the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in Varna, after an amnesty was passed for political prisoners. He began work in Plovdiv – once more moving from place to place as someone inconvenient to the authorities. Whilst still in the prisons, people had always gathered around him to listen to his analyses and ideas, something which continued after his release as well.

As early as 1956, Vaklush Tolev offered an amendment to the Christian prayer ‘Our Father’ (i.e. ‘The Lord’s Prayer’) (Matthew 6:9 – 13), while in 1957 he sent a letter to Patriarch Cyril on the matter, but received no answer. The Teacher of Wisdom considered that verse 13 of the Gospel of Matthew has been erroneous throughout the ages and that instead of ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ it should rightly be ‘Deliver us from evil, so that we do not fall into temptation.’ Later Vaklush found a factual confirmation of his insight in the General Epistle of James – Chapter 1, Verse 13. When he examined the prayer, ‘Our Father’, in different languages he found out that in the Spanish translation it is rendered in the way that he views it.

One verse written by Vaklush which has remained from 1945 goes as follows:

He took part in the Second World War in 1944 as commander of a platoon in the 21-st regiment, Smolyan, of the 1-st Army. He did not bear or use arms. 50 soldiers were entrusted to him and he returned them all alive – only one was wounded, and that was for looting. (He had taken the boots of a slain German soldier.)

Prior to the military operations, Vaklush Tolev had been accepted to study law in the Legal Faculty of the University of Sofia, where he was supposed to have begun his studies in the autumn of 1944.

After the events of the 9th of September 1944 and the change of regime, he was put on trial before the People's Court because of his political views and actions as an officer in the army of the Bulgarian Monarchy. The court pronounced the defendant guilty – ‘An enemy of the people’. The sentence was ‘Death’ and to serve as an example for others, as was the custom on occasion at the time, the loudspeakers in the courtroom were switched on so as to boom out the sentence. The young man had the right to some last words, the expectation being that he would be crushed by the sentence pronounced. But from the loudspeakers boomed his answer, namely that he would lead a principled struggle against communism until the complete annihilation of this ideology. It was precisely this display of daring that led to his sentence being annulled: they let him live with the idea of breaking him in the prisons. The following period of his life he has defined as ‘Heaven’s caring, by means of social repression’, because instead of wounding him, these years in prison helped him preserve his selfhood. Apart from that, ‘I was spared from absent-mindedness’, concluded Vaklush.

In 1942 he relocated from Asenovgrad to Panagiurishte due to a political conflict involving the distribution of leaflets. He graduated from secondary school there and the following year (1943) he commenced the standard military service of 18 months in the School for Reserve Officers.

In 1939 he attended a conference aimed at reaching agreement between the different political wings. In the same period he began to write poetry in secret.

Vaklush Tolev was born on the 7th of January, 1923 (which at that time was the Day of the Nativity by the old Julian calendar), in the village of Popovitsa (known as Papazli until 1934), in Plovdiv county. His family was wealthy and respected: his grandfather, Zapryan, was mayor of Popovitsa, while his father, Tolyo, was well known for his incredible generosity and nobility. His mother, Vasilka, who was also from an affluent family, was a woman with leadership skills, intuition and imagination, according to Tolev.