In 1978, Agnes Baron (Meher Mount's co-founder, lifetime caretaker, and one-time owner) sent the following letter to Sam Ervin (long-time volunteer and board president) who will be a guest speaker at this year's Anniversary Sahavas:
“Could you come this long weekend… If only for a day. You might not want to stay longer – no water! Pump is off again – as of 3 weeks. Everything dying – dismal. I haul from the Spring – and some dirty stuff in bottom of pool. Trial with Sears on pump not until 14 Sept.
"Can’t decide whether to go to expense of pulling and buying new pump or to drill a new well in the walnut orchard – and have sweet water – maybe with a windmill.” (1978, Agnes Baron)
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I would like to share one story that speaks to the enormous purpose or connectivity, not only of Meher Mount, but also of Baba’s Tree.
During my tenure as caretaker (2002-2010), I had to travel to Santa Fe, NM, as part of my work. On my travels there, I liked to go to the Santa Fe flea market. When I was at the market, I noticed a gentleman that was selling honey and bee pollen.
The bee pollen was extraordinary. It was almost psychedelic in color. It was so colorful, and it felt alive. I was really drawn to this guy, his honey, and his bee pollen.
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One Sunday morning, a friend and I did a tree tour of the Ojai area, and we came up to Meher Mount to see Baba’s Tree. I couldn’t believe it was one tree.
After that, I got my family involved. My kids were 10 years old and 15 years old at the time. It was important for me that they learn to appreciate and love nature.
When I initially had the idea to go up to Meher Mount, they were like, “Oh yeah, right, dad. Sure. It’s a tree. Big deal.”
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“We are all meant to be as honest as God, as loving a God, as happy as God: and only the Christ suffers for humanity, although He is the source of all happiness. You see Me in this physical form, but every moment I am crucified. Only those fortunate ones know this. I suffer as no one could suffer. I suffer because I love.”
— Avatar Meher Baba
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One day, a group from out of town visited. They had heard about Meher Mount in downtown Ojai, but they were not familiar with Avatar Meher Baba. The group was visiting because they were interested in sacred places and teachers and that sort of thing.
After hearing a description of the property, one of the men said, “So, all you have is this fountain, this visitor center that's closed [due to COVID], and that path that goes out to a tree?”
I said, “Yes.”
“Well, I have to tell you, I’m a little disappointed that you don't have a gift shop or something we can buy, some Meher Mount souvenir or at least a statue of this Meher Baba,” the visitor responded.
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When Meher Mount asked for memories and stories of Baba’s Tree, Leslie Callarman shared the following:
I gratefully sat under Baba’s Tree one day, thankful for the blessing of being able to physically be in a place where I knew Baba had been.
I imagined that the area would be eternally supercharged with the Divinity that He channeled through His physical form.
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It was a late Sunday afternoon at Meher Mount in early October 2010, warm, dry, and quiet. A family of three, husband, wife, and young son, took a break for a country drive and found their way up Sulphur Mountain Road to Meher Mount, somewhat inexplicably so they told me.
Just as they were about to head out to see the views and Baba’s Tree, I felt prompted for some reason to ask the boy, “Do you like tarantulas?”
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One day while sitting on Mehera’s porch at Meherazad*, I showed Mehera a photo I had taken of Baba’s Tree. The photo was taken at a distance from Baba’s Tree as the sun was beginning to rise.
The sky was filled with beautiful vibrant pinks and blues. The blue was the sky blue of Meher Baba’s flag.+
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I was visiting with my two young boys. Baba’s Tree was really inviting, and they both started to climb the limbs on the tree. Then I noticed all the flowers at the base of the tree and thought maybe my boys shouldn’t disturb anything.
I started to tell them to climb down from the tree, but before I would even say the words, Meher Baba’s face appeared to me (kind of see-through and sparkly like) about a foot from mine.
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I remember this Hafiz poem-rendering coming to mind being at Baba's Tree at Meher Mount, and that poem then, and still does, take on special meaning for me now.
And I remember once reciting this poem to Eruch Jessawala* who said: "The sky is a tree and the stars its branches ever reaching for us, like God."
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It was our first family trip after COVID, and our primary objective was to go to a Meher Baba place. We wanted to document that experience and capture candid family moments and the breathtaking view.
Kids don't generally appreciate nature or seeing God in nature anymore since they are distracted with TV and mobile devices these days. But our daughters were particularly enamored with Baba's Tree. They sat and looked out at the views. They just wanted to take it in.
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We were all standing around under Baba’s Tree, almost in a circle. We prayed and said our “Jai Babas,” and before I knew it, Fred Stankus started to sing “Mind, Mind, Stupid Mind" [formally, “Manonash Calypso”].
I was new to Meher Baba then and had never heard Fred sing this song. I laughed, and then I felt all the words in my heart. Even though it wasn't a typical spiritual song, it ran through the branches and, I think, all the way to the ocean.
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That day at Meher Mount in 2007, I felt like I was breathing new life, new inspiration with every inhalation. The phrase ‘every breath a graduation’ came to my mind because it seemed every time I took a breath I was receiving additional acknowledgement — finding new graduations of insight and achievement.
My poem doesn’t mention Meher Mount or Meher Baba, but it is about my experience one afternoon communing with the ancient oak, Baba’s Tree.
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About prayer, Avatar Meher Baba said,
“The ideal prayer to the Lord is nothing more than spontaneous praise of His being.
“You praise Him, not in the spirit of bargain but in the spirit of self-forgetful appreciation of what He really is. You praise Him because He is praiseworthy.
“Your praise is the spontaneous appreciative response to His true being, as infinite light, infinite power and infinite bliss.”
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Wildfires are an inevitability in Southern California where Meher Mount is located.
“…there is nothing unusual about fires in Los Angeles [Southern California], which is, after all, a desert city [region] with only two distinct seasons: one beginning in January and lasting three or four months, during which storms come from the northern Pacific and it rains… and one lasting eight or nine months, during which it burns or gets ready to burn.” (Joan Didion, “Fire Season in Los Angeles,” September 4, 1989, The New Yorker)
That’s why, even in the December pouring rain, Caretaker Eric Carlson was tending to fire prevention. He sent this email describing the day’s activities.
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“The meaning of forgiveness is to forget the insult. When you remember it, how could you have forgiven it? After forgiving, you should not remember the incident or hold anything against him.”
Meher Baba continued, “Today is New Year’s, and you should make a resolution to forgive and forget. Only by forgetting can you truly forgive. Otherwise, what is the use of merely saying the words, ‘I forgive you’? It must be from the heart.”
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At Christmastime, when much of the world celebrates the birth and life of Jesus, we are reminded of the words of Avatar Meher Baba:
“When God manifests on earth in the form of man and reveals His Divinity to mankind, He is recognized as the Avatar — the Messiah — the Prophet.
“The Avatar is always One and the Same, because God is always One and the Same, the Eternal, Indivisible, Infinite One…the Highest of the High.”
In recognition of the same Eternal One who repeats His manifestation from time to time, we are sharing the song, “Ustad Dhanyavad,” written and composed by James (Jamie) R. Newell.
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As I arrive at the gate at Meher Mount, I see a covey of chubby quail having their Thanksgiving dinner in the parking lot. Typical. I’m always greeted by some form of wildlife when I arrive here.
Sure enough, as I pull up to the front of the Visitor Center, there is a three-point buck and two yearling deer feasting on one of Ellen’s potted plants near the fountain. Don’t tell her. I didn’t chase them away because, well, it is Thanksgiving.
Meher Mount is closed for the holiday. I have the place entirely to myself.
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Why Doesn’t Meher Baba Want Our Thanks?
Bif Soper, a long-time resident volunteer in Meherabad, India, the home of Meher Baba's Tomb Shrine, shared the following perspective on thanking Meher Baba based on personal conversations with Meherwan Jessawala (1930-2016). Meherwan and his entire family were deeply devoted to Meher Baba starting in the mid-1920s.
"Just love Me and remember Me."
After reading Bif's story, Wayne Myers, one of Meher Mount's communications editors, sent this passage from Lord Meher online (pg. 4184) regarding an exchange between Meher Baba and Hoshang Bharucha in 1957.
It’s All Right for You to Thank Him
Sam Ervin, a long-time volunteer for Meher Mount, sent the following based on an interchange involving Mani S. Irani (1918-1996), Meher Baba’s sister. When she was 13-years-old, Mani went to live with the women disciples in Meher Baba’s ashram.
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It was a foggy day when Avatar Meher Baba arrived at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. “It wasn’t clear. You couldn’t see out across the vistas,” remembered Leatrice Shaw Johnston who was at Meher Mount that day.
“The steep hill of Meher Mount was shrouded in mist as our bus climbed tortuously upward, and when we stepped out we saw, instead of the celebrated view of the Ojai Valley, only a rolling sea of fog, recalled Filis Frederick.
Later, with everyone gathered around Him in the ‘Baba Room’ of the guesthouse, Meher Baba gestured toward the outdoors and said…
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