9902 Sulphur Mountain Road
Ojai, CA 93023-9375
Phone: 805-640-0000
Email: info@mehermount.org
Wednesday-Sunday: Noon to 5:00 p.m.
Monday & Tuesday: Closed
Buzz & Ginger Glasky
Sam Ervin, Preident
Ron Holsey, Vice President
Ursula Reinhart, Treasurer
Jim Whitson, Director
Richard Mannis, Director
Margaret Magnus, Secretary
Anecdotes, activities and stories about Meher Mount - past, present and future.
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."
Read MoreIt 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.
Read MoreWe 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.
Read MoreThat 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.
Read MoreAbout 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.”
Read MoreWildfires 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.
Read More“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.”
Read MoreAt 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.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreBif 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.
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.
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.
Read MoreIt 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…
Read MoreOne afternoon, Jean Adriel approached Agnes Baron, who was renting a cottage at the New Life Center at the time, and said, “We are going out for a drive this afternoon, looking for a place, would you like to come?”
In 1944, Jean Adriel and Alexander Markey had established the 500-acre New Life Center in La Crescenta, CA, which was dedicated to Avatar Meher Baba.
Then sometime in 1946, Jean received word from Meher Baba that He wished for them to relocate to a place farther from the Los Angeles area, somewhere one or two hours outside a big city.
Read MoreAfter Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956, He was scheduled to to continue His around-the-world trip and go to San Francisco next with a group of His followers.
The following is the interchange during His visit – as told by Agnes – between her and Meher Baba about her intention to drive to San Francisco the following day.
“Baba,” I said, “I am going to drive up in the station wagon. A lot of people have given me books to take.”
“No!” Baba said, “You have to come with Me in the plane.”
Read MoreIn 1956, when Avatar Meher Baba visited Meher Mount, caretaker Agnes Baron took Him on a tour of the property.
As they crested the hill overlooking a corner of the property, now known as Avatar’s Point, a large oak came into view. Agnes turned to Meher Baba and said, “Baba, I’ve always thought of this as Your Tree.”
Read MoreAgnes Baron, Meher Mount co-founder and lifetime caretaker, describes Avatar Meher Baba's 1956 visit.
She takes filmmakers Irwin and Edwin Luck on a tour of the property, including Baba's Tree and the 'Baba Room' where Meher Baba gave darshan (His blessing) on August 2, 1956.
The 14:56-minute film was made in 1970 and has been restored. However, the sound is still difficult in some places. It’s easiest to watch the video and get the flavor of Agnes Baron’s personality while reading read along from the transcript.
Read MoreFor $42,500 – or about $608,250 in today’s prices – the New Life Foundation acquired the Sulphur Mountain property, now known as Meher Mount, on July 31, 1946.
At least two of the area newspapers carried news of the purchase:
“Shri Meher Baba to Establish Center in Upper Ojai Valley” (The Ojai, August 9, 1946) and
“Baba Will Start New Foundation” (Santa Paula Chronicle, August 13, 1946).
The Ojai article began, “Of interest to the numerous valley residents who follow the history and development of the numerous religious groups that are prominent in the world today… is the news that Shri Meher Baba will come to Ojai from Europe within a few weeks to establish a center of his New Life Foundation up on Sulphur Mountain.”
Read MoreAgnes Baron, who later became a co-founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount, was staying at the New Life Center in La Crescenta, CA, in 1946.
When she arrived at this Center dedicated to Avatar Meher Baba, Agnes knew nothing about Him.
One day during her stay, one of the founders of the New Life Center, Jean Adriel, said to Agnes, “We are going out for a drive this afternoon looking for a place, would you like to come?”
“Well, it was a hot day so I thought I would go with them. I just went for the ride,” Agnes remembered.
“It seems they were planning to sell the New Life Center and buy another place. I didn’t know what the details were, and I didn’t particularly care. I just went for the ride.
“Every time they’d see a lovely place they’d say, ‘Oh there’s Baba’s place.’”
Read MoreMeher Baba touches the heart in the most unexpected ways.
It was late on Saturday, and I was walking down the driveway to the parking area with two first-time guests.
Unexpectedly on our left, a small group of deer came bounding out of the trees and ran in front of us, headed toward the open gate.
Suddenly, to our dismay, a fawn tried to go through a small space between two steel bars in the fence. The young deer got stuck halfway. The deer was simply too big to fit through the opening.
Read More“Jai Baba, everyone. I’ve given multiple warnings that this is not going to be your average Meher Baba talk, because Baba put me through some real events beforehand. And the only way I can put it in context is that I want to real quickly cover my childhood. And I think you will understand as we go on. The one thing to remember is that all’s well that ends well.”
Read More"The feeling when we all came in the room and sat down in front of Baba, the feeling that I had was that Baba knew everything about me, every single little thing about me, and He accepted me exactly as I was and there was no reason to be anybody else. And if I were to summarize this in three words, the feeling was, 'home at last.'" - Joan Dimpfl Harland
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