"It is evening, the sun is about to set, and even the busy hummingbirds are settling in."
By Cassandra Bramucci
My mind is like still water as I sit on the veranda of the Visitor Center. Next to me is a friend who has been helping me take care of Meher Mount for several weeks. It is evening, the sun is about to set, and even the busy hummingbirds are settling in to partake of the peace of this special place.
SUNSET from the veranda of the Visitor Center. The silhouette is Baba’s Fireplace — a reminder of Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount in 1956. (Photo: Cassandra Bramucci, 2018)
“This is all Meher Baba,” my companion remarks with deep emotion in his voice as he spreads his arms to indicate the whole of Meher Mount.
“People think it is just Baba’s Tree where they can feel His Presence, but He is everywhere here. Everywhere!”
As he says this, I am struck by the fact that Baba’s Tree did not simply burn in the Thomas Fire on December 4, 2017. In the 80-mile-an-hour winds that drove the fire up the hills through the Upper Ojai Valley, Baba’s Tree was split wide open at its very heart.
To me, that break released a vast dispensation of Meher Baba’s grace that is palpable all over the property.
AVATAR MEHER BABA (blue coat) walking through the meadow at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. (Photo: Darwin Shaw, (c)Meher Nazar Publications)
I remember former Manager/Caretaker Buzz Glasky telling me during one of my early visits that one receives Baba’s darshan (blessing) the moment she reaches the front gate. That was true of my experience even before the Thomas Fire.
Now, visitors often remark how Meher Mount seems even more powerful than when they visited before the fire. It is as if a vortex of spiritual bounty that had been pent up and privately dispensed to each individual beneath Baba’s Tree for decades could no longer be contained there.
This evening as we sit here in silence, a cool breeze wafts over us. Our souls are deeply refreshed and nourished. We slip into the reverie of the Beloved’s Presence at Meher Mount. How blessed we are to have had this chance to stay here.
We cannot stop saying how grateful we are.
NOTE: Cassandra Bramucci was Interim Caretaker at Meher Mount from February 23, 2018 to August 15, 2018, helping to manage the December 2017 Thomas Fire recovery process.