“I bullied them into funding it,” said Agnes Baron of her efforts to get funding from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to start the Drug Abuse Reorientation Training (DART) program.
“Meher Baba said a whole generation of leadership would be lost if they continued to get caught up in illicit drugs, so I told the board of supervisors they would be responsible if they did not do something to show they were serious about offering young people a non-punitive approach to dealing with drug problems,” she said.
“I embarrassed them for not having done anything about the problem, so they shut me up by funding the DART Program with $20,000 to get it started,” she recalled.
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“Often the question is asked, what has been gained from one’s contact with [the] God-Man, what has one learned from the Lord in His Advent as Meher Baba?
“What can one say? The answer seems to lie within the words of Dr. William Donkin when he was asked that question: ‘It is not what I have gained, but what I have lost in the form of useless mental baggage.’
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In the summer of 1972, Agnes Baron asked me and my wife at the time, Martha Ervin (now Aubin), to drive her to Phoenix, Arizona, to visit some drug programs. She also expressed interest in visiting the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations.
Driving on the Hopi Reservation, we came to a small hut where an old Hopi man sat in a simple wooden chair, serenely gazing out at the horizon. Agnes said, “Stop. I want to talk with him.” She got out and walked toward him.
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Inspired by "National Read a Book Day" - observed annually on September 6 - Meher Mount shared these resources for books about Avatar Meher Baba and His life and words.
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In 1956, Avatar Meher Baba circled the globe in 30 days and flew 30,000 miles crossing five continents. This journey included a three-day stop in Southern California with a visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956.
Because 1956 is such a significant year in the history of Meher Mount, there is a “1956” board on Pinterest to identify other memorable events around the world that year.
The following are photos of some of the 1956 events that intersected with Avatar Meher Baba.
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Meher Mount is often a source of inspiration to artists. That’s why painter and art instructor Jennifer McChristian has been conducting day-long en plein air painting classes here since 2009.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something mystical about the place,” she says. “I feel so happy every time I go there.”
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El Niño never brought the much needed rain to southern California this past year – except on Amartithi.
Amartithi – or eternal date – is the anniversary of the day on which Avatar Meher Baba dropped His physical form in 1969.
El Niño is the warming of the ocean’s surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean which changes the rainfall pattern. In southern California, it usually means more rainfall than normal.
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Mani S. Irani (1918-1996), the sister of Avatar Meher Baba, was His second-closest woman disciple, joining Baba's ashram at the age of thirteen.
In those early years, Meher Baba traveled repeatedly for His work, always with chosen members of the mandali joining Him. The stress of the continual shifting of plans and places, required the mandali to become more detached from the world and to focus on Him.
In response to her life of training and being with Meher Baba, Mani wrote the following poem sometime in the 1940s.
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Meher Baba, named Merwan Sheriar Irani, was born on February 25, 1894. According to this excerpted account from Lord Meher, His mother, Shireen Irani, had a dream that anticipated His greatness just before Meher Baba was born.
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Today, on Amartithi, lovers of [Meher] Baba join together all over the world, forgetting all else in the Presence of His eternal and infinite spirit….
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Before learning of Avatar Meher Baba, Agnes Baron, co-founder and caretaker of Meher Mount, lived the life of a Vedanta nun for a year at the Vedanta Temple in Montecito near Santa Barbara, California.
There she learned to love the Vedanta stories that impart spiritual and practical life lessons. One of her favorite stories, whose lesson she tried to incorporate into her own life was "Hiss, But Don't Bite."
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What Agnes Baron did, she did for Meher Baba alone. And that, in the scheme of things, was all that mattered.
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I had an experience with Agnes Baron once that gave me a great sense of validation. Evidently, I needed it. It happened just after visiting her for the very last time.
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Agnes Baron loved to tell stories from the Vedanta tradition. These stories illustrated various spiritual lessons or insights. One of her favorites was "The Second Loincloth."
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For Christmas in 1935, Avatar Meher Baba sent this telegram to those close ones in America and Europe...
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Every year since Meher Mount’s founding in 1946, volunteers are tasked with making sure that brush is cleared away from all buildings to help protect Meher Mount and the environment from the threat of wildfires.
In May 2015, there was an extra effort to make the meadow – the Prasad Orchard – below Avatar’s Point more accessible to mowing equipment.
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Meher Mount, this sacred place that Meher Baba visited on August 2, 1956, is vibrant with His love and presence, but it is a bit remote.
Yet, it seems to attract more guests that have never heard of Meher Baba than any other center. Some visitors want to know more about Him, but most just seem to fall in love with the "feeling" of His place.
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Ann Conlon met Avatar Meher Baba two times, both in India. In May 1961, Meher Baba cracked open the door of His very strict seclusion and invited anyone to come to Guruprasad in Pune, India, and see Him for only one hour. Ann jumped at this opportunity and flew from New York to India. Her one hour turned into five precious days of seeing Meher Baba.
Ann returned to Pune in November 1962 to attend the East-West Gathering.
In recalling both visits, Ann contrasts the moment she had to say goodbye to Meher Baba in 1961 and 1962, describing Meher Baba's reaction each time, and what it ultimately came to mean in her life.
Ann first describes her goodbye with Meher Baba in 1961:
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To a devotee, Avatar Meher Baba gave these two spiritual secrets.
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The following story covers several conversations between Avatar Meher Baba and Jean Adriel, where she is lamenting her despair to Him.
Jean, author of the book Avatar and a co-founder of Meher Mount, was among a group of Eastern and Western disciples with Meher Baba in Cannes, France, in the summer and fall of 1937.
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