One 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.
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For $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.”
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Agnes 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.’”
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Agnes Baron, co-founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount, spent a year living the life of a Vedanta nun before her time at Meher Mount. Vedanta played an important role in Agnes’ life, particularly in helping to prepare her for recognizing and accepting Avatar Meher Baba.
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