John Paul

I just got a Facebook message from South India. It is from a dear family who runs two schools and an orphanage. They hosted me and the children for several days when we visited in 1996. I am now remembering when I first met the father in 1974 when I was living in Auroville.

I was on a tourist visa, which was due to expire a couple of weeks before my due date. I was determined to find a way to have my baby in our house that we had built in the tiny community that we had started, called Discipline. Auroville is made up of many small cluster communities. I was pretty sick with dysentery and was not about to travel. I needed to be examined by a doctor and decided to take a rickshaw several kilometers to the hospital and get the documentation that would extend my visa. I had been seeing an English midwife who lived in another area of Auroville.

Before going, I wanted to pray at the Samadhi of Sri Aurbindo and the Mother in the ashram in Pondicherry. It was crowded that day and when I was done, I had to step over people’s legs to leave. I went outside of the courtyard to hail a rickshaw (somewhat like hailing a cab in New York). This man that I had stepped over on the way out, came up to me. He said that he had a message from Divine Mother that he wanted to convey to me.

He told me that I would be all right and that I was going to have a girl. He introduced himself as Rev. John Paul. This was unusual for me as I didn’t know any Indian Christians, although I had been to the Catholic Church several times. He was an Anglican priest. Later he came to visit me after Suryananda was born. As he had relayed to me, the birth was wonderful. Even though I got the extension, I didn’t need it because I went into labor early, before the expiration date. I had an India born baby so I could stay.

He and I have kept in touch loosely through the years and now his son has contacted me through Facebook. I am glad to know John Paul is well. He must be very old by now.

Prema Rose