"The place isn’t yours. It belongs to Meher Baba. Make up your mind to that."
Meher Mount
Your Friday photo is in honor of Meher Mount co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron (1907-1994) and the opening reception tonight at the Ojai Valley Museum of the exhibit “Women of the Ojai Valley: 100 Years of Ojai History” which includes Agnes Baron...
In this photo Agnes is sitting in front of her screened in porch of the main house where she lived before the 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire destroyed all the buildings at Meher Mount.
Over the years, Agnes faced numerous instances of other people trying to get control of Meher Mount. The following is one story in the early years when she fought to hold onto the 172-acre property for Avatar Meher Baba.
“The place isn’t yours. It belongs to Meher Baba. Make up your mind to that.”
Agnes’ journey to Meher Mount started just after she returned from Europe as the U.S. was nearing entry into World War II in 1941. Agnes, who was 34 years old at the time, was disillusioned and disheartened at what she had seen.
She came to California and found inspiration and meaning studying Vedanta. But she left the Vedanta group in Hollywood after two years, accusing the swami of being a hypocrite and fallen yogi.[1]
She went to live at another Vedanta Center in La Crescenta, CA, but was asked to leave because her typing late into the night disturbed the other residents. They suggested she go next door to another retreat.
That’s where she met Jean Adriel and Alexander Markey, disciples of Meher Baba. They had established the New Life Center in La Crescenta in late 1944 and dedicated it to Meher Baba.
Later, sometime in 1946, Jean told Agnes that Meher Baba had written from India to find a place at least two hours away from a big city.[2]
One afternoon, the group was going to go to the Ojai Valley, and they invited Agnes along for the ride.
Agnes was the one who spotted a curious stand of trees atop Sulphur Mountain and insisted they investigate. When Agnes jumped over the fence to explore the property that would become Meher Mount, she had crossed the threshold to her destiny in work and service for the rest of her life.[3]
Jean and Alexander closed escrow on the property on July 31, 1946. Agnes, still uncertain about Meher Baba, moved in with the group. She wanted to be the “outdoor man.”
“So, I learned how to prune fruit trees, how to run a tractor, I did all that stuff that I didn't know before,” Agnes said. “And after one year, [Jean] decided to go to India. And then she made everybody else leave. There were about 10 people, and [she] made them all leave and wanted me to stay. I said, ‘I’m not interested in your Baba, why should I stay?’”[4]
“[Jean said] ‘I want you to stay until I find out what Baba wants.’”[5]
“So finally, it ended up with her going away, [and] my staying on. I was [here] alone, keeping the place.”[6]
Sometime later, according to Agnes, Jean turned up with a businessman whose last name was Bosberg.
“Anyway, to make a long story short, he pulled a very dirty trick,” Agnes recalled. “He pretended to be interested in Baba and he insisted on having the property in his name.”[7]
[As an aside, it’s not clear from research to date that Bosberg had his name on the property, but Agnes thought he did.]
“And when that was done,” Agnes continued, “he told somebody else, ‘Ha ha, I played a good trick. I’m not interested in Baba, I just said that to get the property. I’m going to have a big hotel here and I’m going to have all the psychics.’”[8]
“Can you imagine anything worse than that?” Agnes asked.
“And when I heard that, for the first time I wrote to Meher Baba. I knew that somebody was lying and cheating. So, I wrote Him the whole story because, on principle, I hate anybody who tries to cheat somebody else.”
“Without thinking I just wrote down, ‘and Baba if you want Meher Mount, I’ll keep it for you through hellfire and damnation.’ I signed it and sent it off.”[9]
“Now, why did I do that?” She asked herself when she was telling the story in Mandali Hall in Meherazad, India, in 1982.
“It’s only in hindsight that I see that from the very beginning a little string that Baba had me like a little fish pulling me along like this. So anyway, I sent it off and so He had been doing that all this time to keep me to my promise of hellfire and damnation.”[10]
Meher Baba wrote back what she called a very sweet letter saying, He appreciated and loved Agnes very much and that she, by all means, should keep Meher Mount for Him.
“I didn’t say anything to the man [Bosberg],” Agnes continued, “but I made up my mind that the place is not his. He lied to get it in his name, mind you.
“And I didn’t know what to do, but I only knew that the man was not going to get possession of it. Finally, it came to a climax, and he wrote a letter and he said, ‘I have been sending a lot of people interested in putting money into the place with me up to Meher Mount.’ I don’t know if he called it Meher Mount or not. And he said, ‘They always come away and say no, they are not interested. Now what are you doing?! What are you and that Meher Baba doing to these people?!’
“And he said Baba was a black magician and I was under His powers and all that nonsense. So, after a few letters, I got very angry, and I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘Look. Stop writing this nonsense. The place isn’t yours. It belongs to Meher Baba. Make up your mind to that.’ And I said, ‘From now on I’m not going to write you anymore. I’m not going to answer any of your stupid letters. And I said, ‘Enough.’”[11]
“So, anyway, I received no more letters,” she said.
From the beginning, Agnes Baron had 100% responsibility for Meher Mount. And she carried that responsibility all alone until her death in 1994. The property dedicated to Avatar Meher Baba is now owned and governed by the non-profit organization, Meher Mount Corporation.
~Sam Ervin & Margaret Magnus, Volunteers
Footnotes
[1] Bing Heckman, “Agnes Baron and Meher Mount,” Meher Baba Center of Northern California Quarterly Newsletter, Fall 1994, Vol. 24, pg. 1. ©Avatar Meher Baba Center of Northern California.
[2] Agnes Baron, “Beginning,” Mandali Hall Talks. Recorded in Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, in September 1982, accessed online on August 2, 2021.
[3] “The Beloved’s Watchdog: Agnes Baron Remembers Her Life with Meher Baba.” Video. (Walnut Creek: Gateway Mediaworks, 1998)
[4] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, ibid.
[5] Mandali Hall Talks, op.cit.
[6] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, op.cit.
[7] Mandali Hall Talks, op.cit.
[8] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[9] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[10] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[11] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
