After Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956, He was scheduled to to continue His around-the-world trip and go to San Francisco next with a group of His followers.
The following is the interchange during His visit – as told by Agnes – between her and Meher Baba about her intention to drive to San Francisco the following day.
“Baba,” I said, “I am going to drive up in the station wagon. A lot of people have given me books to take.”
“No!” Baba said, “You have to come with Me in the plane.”
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?"
One of the ways in which Agnes supported herself and Meher Mount was by being a substitute teacher. Some of her former students and a co-teacher posted their memories on Facebook in September 2020.
“She was a substitute teacher for me and other teachers at Isbell [Middle School]. I remember talking with her many times and receiving some of her home canned goods, herbs, or produce. The kids called her Bacon Lady but mostly in a loving way since she told such great stories. Never needed to leave sub plans for her!" – Linda Pittman Spink
Agnes Baron recounts her first moments with Meher Baba:
“There are no words to describe it. It was so fantastic. All my doubts just flew out the window. The first thing Baba did was to open his arms and put my head on his shoulders. Something out of this world happens to you when Baba puts his arms around you. It's indescribable. What I saw sitting on the couch and what I felt was sitting on the couch were two different things. Without any more rationalizing, I accepted him one hundred percent.
“The love just poured out of him. His vibrations were like a hummingbird…you couldn't see the vibrations, but you knew the vibrating. You felt that in Baba...his eyes were so full of compassion, just utterly irresistible…. I was hooked…that was it. I didn't care about obedience. I didn't give a damn about anything like that. He was utterly irresistible.”
Thirty-five years ago, in September 1982, Meher Mount co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron took her first and only trip to India to meet with Meher Baba’s mandali (close disciples) regarding the future of Meher Mount.
She wanted the mandali’s advice on what to do with Meher Mount. At the time of her trip, Meher Mount was in her name, and she was wrestling with what to do with the property in the future. She had told Meher Baba in 1952 that she would keep Meher Mount for Him through “hell, fire and damnation.”
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.
When I met Agnes Baron, a co-founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount, I was living in Santa Barbara at the time and had avoided going to Meher Mount in Ojai because I had heard that Agnes was an “an old bitch” from some other Baba lovers.
In my experience, Agnes was tough and even fought the oil companies that were abusing land rights, but she had a softer side. When certain people visited, under circumstances that I didn’t realize, she would be gentle and treat them with kid gloves. Agnes could tune into what that person needed.
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."
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.
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."
Agnes Baron (1907-1994) is remembered because of her dedication to Avatar Meher Baba, for her role as a founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount, for her fiery nature and no-holds barred approach to life, for her selfless service, and for the many lives she touched.
A humorous story wherein Margaret Magnus and Sam Ervin attempt to get a new car for Agnes Baron at Meher Mount sometime in the late 1970s/early 1980s..
On the occasion of Agnes Baron's 105th birthday - January 17, 2012 - Meher Mount published this photo as a part of a short biography of Agnes. After seeing this photo, former Manager/Caretaker Ray Johnston sent the following email.
