“You are so lucky to be with me so closely,” Meher Baba said when He visited Meher Mount in 1956. “You do not realize how very fortunate you are when I embrace you all.”

Later, He smiled and said, “This afternoon, you all have a chance to laugh and feel relaxed. …here today, we feel relaxed, happy. I come down to your level so that we can laugh and be free together; but do not forget at the same time that I am the Highest of the High.”

After Avatar Meher Baba and His followers arrived at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956, He called everyone into the ‘Baba Room’ of the guesthouse.

“…we all went inside and sat wherever we could, all sort of crowded around Baba, but in a comfortable way,” remembered Darwin Shaw in his book, As Only God Can Love. “Baba sat where everyone could see him. He seemed very relaxed and happy to be among his lovers.”

Agnes Baron, co-founder and lifetime caretaker, said that the ‘Baba Room’ was called that from the very beginning in 1946. “It had been set aside in the early days as a meditation center. But not too many people were interested in meditation. So, it finally became just a general room where people met.”

This is where Meher Baba stayed most of the day in 1956.

At one point in the afternoon, Agnes remembers Him calling for Charmian Duce Knowles, who was filming Meher Baba’s visit.

“Do you have a camera with you?” Meher Baba asked Charmian.

She said, “Yes.”  

Meher Baba said, “I want Agnes to have a special memento of this day. You take a picture.”

“Meher Baba was doing these fantastic, these really wonderful personal gestures that He always does to make one person particularly happy,” Agnes remembered.

“So, I came in and knelt down by His side and Charmian took two good colored pictures which I cherish very much even now,” remembered Agnes.

In 1985, wildfire swept through Meher Mount destroying all the buildings, including the guesthouse and the ‘Baba Room.’ Yet, the stone fireplace-chimney — Baba’s Fireplace — remained as a touchstone of His visit and of His Presence in our lives.

Baba’s Fireplace and the area around it — soon to become the Darshan Courtyard — is a unique and serene area for personal contemplation, small group gatherings, and celebration.