Shireen's labor pains started and a Catholic nun was summoned from her morning prayers. Golandoon sat near her daughter, watching anxiously. Sheriar waited outside the hospital room, continuously repeating God's name.
The hospital's night watchman made his rounds. As he struck the gong five times, the crying of a baby was heard. The birds increased their joyous notes as if to welcome the child, and even the sun seemed excited — eager to rise over the horizon.
Golandoon emerged from the room. "Sheriar, it's a boy!" she exclaimed, beaming. "You have another son!" Sheriar was filled with happiness and immediately rushed into the room to see his newborn child.
Poona was just starting to stir, as if the baby had proclaimed, "Arise now, I am the Awakener!" Little did people know that a day would come when he would awaken them from their life of sleep. By taking birth in the early hours of dawn, the child had signaled his arrival as the Awakener — the Avatar of the Age.
The relatives and neighbors soon came to the hospital to see the newborn child. They were overjoyed and admired the baby's beauty. "A full moon has arisen in Sheriar's house!" one person remarked. The joy that abounded in the hearts of all who saw the child was indeed most extraordinary, for the joy of that sacred day will last for ages to come. The atmosphere was filled with a wonderful freshness and spontaneity of goodness; and only Sheriar knew that the source of it was his child.
With the infant in her arms, Shireen returned home in a tonga (horse-drawn carriage). The news of Shireen's newborn son spread throughout the neighborhood, and those who went to see the infant came away wonderfully contented. When their eyes gazed upon the infant, they felt peaceful and forgot their cares and woes.
The child was given the Persian name Merwan, but his family always called him Merog .1 Shireen loved Merwan intensely and thought of him as her firstborn. The infant nursed well and the bond between mother and son was strong.
A few months passed of uninterrupted happiness, and then Shireen had a dream which she narrated to Sheriar:
I dreamt I was standing at the doorway of our home, holding Merog in my arms. Out of the nearby well [across the courtyard from their home] rose the figure of a small but striking woman — a splendorous deva, like a Hindu goddess.
Footnotes
- 1.Merwan means "gracious" or "generous."