Meher Baba states, “The basic causes of the social turmoil that often precipitates into war, may be found in the individual, the social whole, the functioning of maya [illusion] and in the very intent of God’s will.”
In the booklet, Meher Baba on War, He gives the world a profound explanation of war and its spiritual significance. He succinctly lays out the causes of war, the various ways the limited mind tries to comprehend it, and our responsibilities in understanding and dealing with war.
When Meher Mount received the gift of a sadra worn by Avatar Meher Baba, Sam L. Ervin, board president, was moved to write this poem.
A sadra (also sadhra) is a thin muslin shirt traditionally worn by Zoroastrians. Meher Baba adapted the sadra into an ankle-length garment which He regularly wore.
When Agnes Baron, co-founder, lifetime caretaker, and one-time owner of Meher Mount, first met Avatar Meher Baba in 1952, He said,
“’First of all, I want Agni to know that only Agni, God and Baba know what she has gone through in these six years to hold Meher Mount for me.’”
Agnes looked at Him in surprise and said, “’It was no trouble, Baba, no trouble at all.’” She had completely forgotten all her problems in His presence.
“Hellfire and damnation” is how co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron (1907-1994) described her life keeping Meher Mount for Avatar Meher Baba.
Agnes, a fearless and fiery woman, dedicated 48 years of her life to making sure that Meher Mount would be here for Meher Baba, today and in the future.
Sam L. Ervin, board president and long-time friend of Agnes Baron, shares some specific incidents in Agnes’ life where she fought to keep Meher Mount. Sam spoke at the 2022 Anniversary Sahavas commemorating Meher Baba’s visit on August 2, 1956.
Take a moment now to watch this video that portrays Agnes Baron’s fierce determination, her unvarnished view of events, and her dedication.
Sam L. Ervin at Meher Mount, 2022 Anniversary Sahavas
Introduction to Sam L. Ervin
By Margaret Magnus
One of Sam’s first visits to Meher Mount was on May 19, 1968, to pull weeds on a special day of silence called for by Meher Baba. He continued to visit to pull more weeds, re-roof Baba’s House, cleanup after two fires, chop wood, carry water, clean the pool, and serve Meher Mount. His teen years of hard physical labor on a cattle ranch in Porterville have come in handy.
Then, inspired and encouraged by Agnes to go into social services, he got a Master’s in Social Work in administration and planning in 1975. Sam went on to be the founder and CEO of the non-profit SCAN Health Plan.
There he pioneered an innovative senior program, which required securing six acts of Congress. A key achievement was keeping more than 20,000 frail seniors living safely at home instead of nursing homes. By the time he retired in 2002, the company had grown from 1 employee to 640 employees and served 55,000 seniors in four counties.
After his retirement, Sam returned to Meher Mount to once again pull weeds. By then there was a non-profit board, and he has served as president for the past 20 years, relying on his planning, managing, and CEO skills working in non-profit organizations.
Sam’s focus is continuing Agnes’ promise to hold Meher Mount for Meher Baba, even if it’s through “hell, fire and damnation.”
In 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.”
Meher 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.
According to the account in Lord Meher, Agnes was about to leave her guests and go to Meher Baba, when Ivy asked for something. Agnes was in such a hurry to leave she did not fulfill Ivy's request, causing Ivy to make some disparaging comment about Agnes.
Fuming, Agnes came to Meher Baba and said, “Baba, you say you have to love everybody, well I don't love everybody — what am I going to do about it?"
The measures taken over the past year to protect and nourish Baba’s Tree seem to have contributed to its survival and new growth so far.
Baba’s Tree continues to show signs that point to survival and at the same time, caution. Most of the sprouts that have come out since the fire, on the shattered trunk and two of the largest limbs, are still green and look healthy.
There has been some significant die-back of sprouts along two other large limbs. Inaba counsels cautious optimism, suggesting that another summer will tell much more about the longer term probabilities. Fire recovery is not over and continues for Baba’s Tree at least for another year or two.
Fire has been a visitor to Baba’s Tree and to Meher Mount more than once. The Thomas Fire shattered the tree’s crown and much of the trunk on December 4, 2017.
On October 14, 1985, fire ravaged and destroyed nearly all Meher Mount. A month after the New Life Fire, Baba’s Tree looked dead. It was black, leafless, and terribly scarred. The main trunk was hollowed out and black inside. Limbs over 30 feet in the air had burned. The great limb above Meher Baba’s seat had burned nearly through by the trunk with its furthermost branches fallen to the earth.
Fire strips away much of nature’s camouflage and reveals the unexpected.
On December 12, 2017, just eight days after the Thomas Fire swept through parts of Meher Mount, Buzz and Ginger Glasky, Cassandra Bramucci, Margaret Magnus and I walked the property marveling at the fire’s path and the fire’s targets.
Surprisingly, Cassandra noticed a small pile of 21 coins, unearthed by the fire, under one of the pine trees at Avatar’s Point. We had no idea how they got there.
The largest wildfire in California history, the Thomas Fire, started near (Saint) Thomas Aquinas College, about eight miles from Meher Mount and northwest of the city of Santa Paula, on Monday, December 4, 2017 at 6:26 p.m.
It is clear the fire visited nearly every part of the upper section of Meher Mount. Manager/Caretakers Buzz and Ginger Glasky were amazed at how the fire line seemed to stop at critical points.
In short, the fire brushed pass the buildings and equipment, even touching a trellis at the Visitor Center. Both the Visitor Center/Caretaker Quarters and the Topa Topa Patio are intact, although smoke damage is not yet known. Baba’s Tree suffered some damage, but its base remained standing. Some additional assessment and repair of the water system is needed.
Agnes Baron (1907-1994) was a co-founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount. Her natural desire to serve led her to care for Meher Mount for 48 years, often with great difficulty, or as she put it, “through hellfire and damnation.” She also found ways to serve others in the community.
By Sam L. Ervin
Karma Yoga Is a Central Practice in Agnes Baron’s Life
Through the study of Vedanta [1], Agnes found a conceptual construct that supported a driving force that had always been present in her life: Karma Yoga. Agnes often said that service to others had always come naturally to her.
Karma Yoga is one of the major “ways” or yogas for the life of the spirit. [2] It is the discipline of selfless action, working and serving without attachment, egoism or expectation of gain or reward. [3]
Throughout her 48 years at Meher Mount, Agnes continued to find ways to practice Karma Yoga.
AGNES BARON and an unidentified woman working in the garden at Meher Mount. (Photo: Meher Mount Archives, late 1940s)
Agnes would often advise the young Meher Baba lovers who showed up at Meher Mount to, “forget yourself in service to others.” She would paraphrase a quote from Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “To work thou hast the right, but not to the fruits thereof.” [4]
“Don’t say you are helping others,” she would say. “You don’t know whether you are helping someone or not, you just serve as best you can.
“When you are serving others without attachment or thought of reward, you are serving God in them.” Agnes echoed Avatar Meher Baba’s words, “Real happiness lies in making others happy.”
Agnes Baron’s Work in the Community
Agnes devoted her life to helping others. After having helped many refugees escape terrible fates in Europe before World War II, she assisted many immigrants over the years to adjust to life in America. She helped them find jobs and make connections. Agnes stayed in touch with many of these people from various countries, and they admired her and appreciated her always being there for them.
AGNES BARON writing instructions to volunteer Sam L. Ervin during a ‘work party’ at Meher Mount on Silence Day. (Photo: Margaret Magnus, late 1970s/early 1980s).
She helped start the first Head Start program for pre-school children in Ventura County. She studied Montessori education and taught in Montessori schools. She also worked as a substitute teacher in public schools to support herself and pay Meher Mount expenses. Agnes inspired quite a few young adults to study Maria Montessori’s books, and some went on to become Montessori teachers. In the 1950s, Agnes helped start a school at Meher Mount that operated for a few years.
Inspired by Meher Baba’s admonitions in the 1960s regarding the dangers of drugs and His call to help young people get off drugs, Agnes provided a temporary residence for a dozen people in a drug rehabilitation program at Meher Mount in the late 1960s.
She also “bullied” the Ventura County Board of Supervisors into funding the DART (Drug Abuse Reorientation Training program) for teenagers arrested for drug offenses in 1970. [5]
AGNES BARON also loved animals. For a brief period of time, she boarded horses at Meher Mount as a way to support herself and Meher Mount. (Photo: Lola Long, 1970s)
Separately, Agnes worked to assist many programs for alcoholics, ex-convicts, juvenile delinquents and others.
Agnes was a regular phone volunteer on the Suicide Prevention Hotline. In the evenings, she would sit by her phone, and if a call was routed to her, she would talk to the person contemplating suicide. She would both counsel them and determine if she thought intervention by police or mental health professionals was appropriate.
Agnes worked and advocated on behalf of various social and environmental causes. She encouraged the young people who came to Meher Mount in the late 1960s and 1970s to work for the causes that were important to them.
As part of her regular routine – even with all the responsibilities she faced caring for Meher Mount – Agnes would search the newspapers to identify people in need. Then she would contact them, even driving down the mountain to find them, and offer whatever assistance was possible. She would advocate fearlessly and passionately for people she felt could not represent their own needs.
Agnes Baron did not just talk about selfless service or Karma Yoga. She practiced it as her way of serving Meher Baba.
Agnes’ immersion in Vedanta and the study of the great Perfect Master Ramakrishna appears to have helped prepare her for her complete dedication to Avatar Meher Baba when the opportunity came.
Thus, when Meher Baba asked her to take care of Meher Mount for Him, she responded that she would keep it for Him through hell, fire and damnation. Accordingly, Meher Baba nicknamed Agnes His "watchdog."
Footnotes
[1] Vedanta is one of the great schools of Hindu thought and tradition. Vedanta is based on the Vedas, the sacred scripture of India. It affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of all religions. Vedanta is one of the world's most ancient spiritual philosophies and one of its broadest. [2] There are four paths of Yoga: Karma Yoga –The Yoga of Action; Bhakti Yoga – The Path of Devotion or Divine Love; Raja Yoga – The Science of Physical and Mental Health; and Jnana Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge and Wisdom. (International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres) [3] International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, accessed October 17, 2021. [4] The Bhagavad Gita, often referred to as simply the Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. (Wikipedia) The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Ramayana. (Wikipedia) [5] Sam Ervin & Margaret Magnus, “I Bullied Them into Funding the DART Program,” October 4, 2016, Meher Mount’s website, accessed September 11, 2017.
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.
On March 7, 1970, two of Avatar Meher Baba’s closest and longest tenured disciples, Adi K. Irani and Meherjee Karkaria, arrived at the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, SC. It just so happened on that same day an eclipse of the sun was visible along much of the east coast of the US, including Myrtle Beach.
In her quest to continually improve the DART (Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Training) program, Agnes Baron asked my then wife, Martha Ervin (now Aubin) and me to drive her in June 1972 to Arizona where she wanted to research several drug rehabilitation programs that were getting good press. We had previously been working as drug counselors with Agnes in the DART program in Ventura County, CA.
Although investigation into drug abuse programs initially led Agnes Baron to Arizona on a research trip, the related events of that trip proved to be the most memorable for me.
“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.
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.
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."
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."
