"What is being grown? Are there orchards?" - Meher Baba
Margaret Magnus
By Margaret Magnus
“Meher Baba was always 100% with you, no matter what the situation. Whatever was in His presence, at that moment, was terribly important” to Him, said Agnes Baron, Meher Mount co-founder and lifetime caretaker. [1]
Agnes made this observation when she shared the story of driving Meher Baba the 85 miles from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles to Meher Mount in Ojai, CA, in 1956.
On Tuesday, July 31, 1956, when Meher Baba and the four men mandali (close disciples) traveling with Him arrived in Los Angeles, they were taken to stay at the centrally located Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for their three-day visit.
WOODY STATION WAGON owned by Agnes Baron. She drove Avatar Meher Baba and the four men mandali (close disciples) from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles to Meher Mount in Ojai, CA, in 1956. (Photo: Sam Ervin, 1970s)
The Morning Drive to Meher Mount
On the morning August 2, 1956, Agnes drove Meher Baba along with Eruch Jessawala, Dr. Nilu (Vinayak Nilkanth Godse), Adi K. Irani, and Meherjee Karkaria to Meher Mount in her Woody station wagon.
The highway they traveled runs through the Santa Clara River Valley —also known as the Heritage Valley. Agnes remembered seeing orchard after orchard. “It is very rich and beautiful. It really is,” she said. [2]
Along the way, Meher Baba admired the rich farmland and asked many questions. “What is being grown, how is the land irrigated, are there orchards?” [3], [4]
For both the Santa Clara River Valley, on the southern side of Sulphur Mountain (where Meher Mount is located), and the Ojai Valley to the north of Sulphur Mountain, agriculture is a mainstay of the area.
From the strawberry fields of Oxnard and Ventura to the Ojai Pixie tangerines, this area has some of the most fertile farmland in the country. There are also lavender, walnuts, olives, Gala apples, Howard Miracle plums, avocados, apricots, and assorted vegetables, including organic gardening.
The Heritage Valley is one of California’s last pristine agricultural valleys. Santa Paula, one the valley’s cities, calls itself the “Citrus Capital of the World.”
AN APRICOT ORCHARD on Highway 150 just east of the Sulphur Mountain Road turnoff leading to Meher Mount. (Photo: Margaret Magnus, 2012)
"The tiniest little detail, and he’s right there."
Agnes described Meher Baba leaning out of the window and pointing to this and pointing to that and being very animated. “So, it was really, really fantastic, the whole trip in. Everything that we came to, He had to have a description of, no matter what it was.” [5]
He asked, “How’s this tree growing? How do they irrigate? How do they do this? How do they do that? It was fantastic. I mean, that’s what impressed me. Nothing escaped Him. The tiniest little detail, and he’s right there,” she said. [6]
“He doesn’t live in the past or in the future, the way we do, but is right here” even with simple things like taking a drive, Agnes noted. [7]
“It got to the point, where I was even telling Him about the [geological] layers; all about the formations of mountains. Nothing, nothing missed His interest at all.” [8]
DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD in the Santa Clara Valley in 1956 with orchards growing on all sides. (Screen Capture: Meher Baba in the USA, 1956, filmed by Charmian Duce Knowles. Produced and copyrighted by Sufism Reoriented.)
During the ride, Meher Baba would turn around in the front seat and converse with the men mandali (close disciples) riding in the back seat.
Agnes said they were gesturing and talking about land deals, planting the land, subdividing it, and making comparisons between India and what they were seeing. [9]
Meher Baba was talking as if He were a real estate agent, she cracked. [10]
“The mandali would say something, and I would say something, and there’d be big excitement. This was pretty much for the entire trip in. He just didn’t sit solemnly.” [11]
After spending the day at Meher Mount, Meher Baba asked Agnes to drive him back by the longer coast route on Highway 1 through Malibu to Hollywood. He mentioned along the way that He thoroughly enjoyed the view of the sparkling blue Pacific Ocean.
AVATAR MEHER BABA leaving Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. Western disciple Kitty L. Davy is holding the door for Him. (Photo: Darwin Shaw, (c) Meher Nazar Publications)
Footnotes
[1] Agnes Baron, “Agnes Baron Remembers Meher Baba’s 1956 Visit,” YouTube video, 14:56 minutes, by Irwin and Edwin Luck filmed at Meher Mount, Ojai, CA, in 1970. Start 05:02, accessed online on October 12, 2021.
[2] For both the Santa Clara River Valley, on the southern side of Sulphur Mountain (where Meher Mount is located), and the Ojai Valley to the north of Sulphur Mountain, agriculture is a mainstay of the area. From the strawberry fields of Oxnard and Ventura to the Ojai Pixie tangerines, this area has some of the most fertile farm land in the country. There are also lavender, walnuts, olives, Gala apples, Howard Miracle plums, avocados, apricots, and assorted vegetables, including organic gardening. The Heritage Valley is one of California’s last pristine agricultural valleys. Santa Paula, one the valley’s cities, calls itself the “Citrus Capital of the World.”
[3] Baron, ibid., accessed online October 12, 2021.
[4] Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Online Edition, pp. 4064-4065, accessed July 26, 2017. (c) Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.
[5] Baron, op.cit., accessed online October 12, 2021.
[6] Agnes Baron, “Visit,” Mandali Hall Talks. Recorded in Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, in September 1982. Accessed online on August 2, 2021.
[7] Baron, “Agnes Baron Remembers,” op.cit., accessed online October 12, 2021.
[8] Baron, ibid., accessed online October 12, 2021.
[9] Baron, ibid., accessed online October 12, 2021.
[10] Kalchuri, op.cit., accessed online July 26, 2017.
[11] Baron, “Agnes Baron Remembers,” op.cit., accessed online October 12, 2021.