Hell, Fire and Damnation - Keeping Meher Mount for Meher Baba
Sam L. Ervin
By Sam L. Ervin & Margaret Magnus
When Agnes Baron, co-founder, lifetime caretaker, and one-time owner of Meher Mount, first met Avatar Meher Baba in 1952, He said,
AVATAR MEHER BABA and Agnes Baron at Meher Spiritual Center, Myrtle Beach, SC, in 1956. (Photo: (c) Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
“’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.’” [1]
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. [2]
“And I didn’t tell him anything. I said ‘Trouble! What do you mean Baba?’ And here I had been dying of anxiety, and when Baba said ‘trouble’ I thought, ‘Well, how silly, I didn’t have any trouble.’
“It just completely vanished. It’s a fact. So, the whole time in His presence, all my problems meant nothing. Everything [was] just wiped out.” [3]
Agnes later talked about that time at Meher Mount.
“For six years I stayed [at Meher Mount] and I slaved like a fool… I had to pay the mortgage. All I had for income was a patch of strawberries, and I would go down and peddle them from door to door in Ojai, and they were very sweet.” [4]
During those six years, 1946 to 1952, she continued,
“I had these people [and] professors, come up. And somebody would say “What are you doing? You don’t know that guy. What are you staying with him for?’ I said, ‘I don't know.’ I did not know.” [5]
Then Agnes met 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. [6]
“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.” [7]
“Afterwards, I was consciously watching him to see if he was going to make any mistakes, but deep down I had already accepted him.” [8]
Agnes’ Journey to Meher Mount
Agnes’ journey to Meher Mount started just after she returned from Europe as the U.S. was nearing entry into World War II in 1941. Agnes, who was 34 years-old at the time, was disillusioned and disheartened at what she had seen.
She came to California and found inspiration and meaning studying Vedanta. But she left the Vedanta group in Hollywood after two years, accusing the swami of being a hypocrite and fallen yogi. [9]
She went to live at another Vedanta Center in La Crescenta, CA, but was asked to leave because her typing late into the night disturbed the other residents. They suggested she go next door to another retreat.
LA CRESCENTA VALLEY in the 1920s at the time the Bissel family owned the property which later became the New Life Center. The main north-south street in the valley was Los Angeles Street, now La Crescenta Avenue, heading toward the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. (Photo: Glendale Library)
That’s where she met Jean Adriel and Alexander Markey, disciples of Meher Baba. They had established the New Life Center in La Crescenta in late 1944 and dedicated it to Meher Baba.
Agnes professed no interest in Meher Baba. But she was invited to live in a cottage there, and she decided to stay.
A PRINTING of Avatar: The Life Story of Avatar Meher Baba by Jean Adriel, 1971, by The Beguine Library.
Jean told Agnes she was a writer, too, and asked Agnes to edit the book, Avatar. While Agnes found much of the writing too sentimental for her taste, she was nevertheless “impressed by the central subject, Meher Baba.”
Agnes said she would only edit the book if she could take a red pen and cross out a lot of that saccharin language.
However, Agnes swore to herself “not to be taken in.” [10],[11]
Later, sometime in 1946, Jean told Agnes that Meher Baba had written from India to find a place at least two hours away from a big city. [12]
One afternoon, the group was going to go to the Ojai Valley, and they invited Agnes along for the ride.
Agnes was the one who spotted a curious stand of trees atop Sulphur Mountain and insisted they investigate. When Agnes jumped the fence to explore the property that would become Meher Mount, she had crossed the threshold to her destiny in work and service for the rest of her life. [13]
THE OJAI published this article, “Shri Meher Baba to Establish Center in Upper Ojai Valley,” announcing the founding of Meher Mount, which closed escrow on July 31, 1946. (Photo: Meher Mount Archives)
Agnes Stays at Meher Mount After Everyone Else Leaves
Jean and Alexander closed escrow on the property on July 31, 1946. Agnes, still uncertain about Meher Baba, moved in with the group. She wanted to be the “outdoor man.”
“So, I learned how to prune fruit trees, how to run a tractor, I did all that stuff that I didn't know before,” Agnes said. “And after one year, [Jean] decided to go to India. And then she made everybody else leave. There were about 10 people), and [she] made them all leave and wanted me to stay. I said, ‘I’m not interested in your Baba, why should I stay?’” [14]
“[Jean said] ‘I want you to stay until I find out what Baba wants.’” [15]
“So finally, it ended up with her going away, [and] my staying on. I was [here] alone, keeping the place.” [16]
THE ORIGINAL GUEST HOUSE at Meher Mount in the 1940s. This was the building, the ‘Baba House’, where Avatar Meher Baba greeted visitors during His visit on August 2, 1956. This house and all the other buildings on the property were destroyed in the 1985 New Life Fire. (Archive photo.)
Agnes said the reason she agreed to stay is because she thought it would be only a month or so. The next thing Agnes knew, Jean had returned to Hollywood, and came to Meher Mount saying she was going to sell the place.
Agnes still didn’t know what to do, and Jean told her, “’Well, just wait until I can sell the place.’” [17]
A Businessman Wants to Build a Big Hotel
Sometime later, according to Agnes, Jean turned up with a businessman whose last name was Bosberg.
“He pretended to be interested in Baba,” Agnes said. “Anyway, to make a long story short, he pulled a very dirty trick. He pretended to be interested in Baba and he insisted on having the property in his name.” [18]
[As an aside, it’s not clear from research to date that Bosberg actually had his name on the property, but Agnes thought he did.]
“And when that was done,” Agnes continued, “he told somebody else, ‘ha ha, I played a good trick. I’m not interested in Baba, I just said that to get the property. I’m going to have a big hotel here and I’m going to have all the psychics.’” [19]
“Can you imagine anything worse than that?” Agnes asked.
“And when I heard that, for the first time I wrote to Baba. I knew that somebody was lying and cheating. So, I wrote Him the whole story because, on principle, I hate anybody who tries to cheat somebody else.”
“So, I wrote a really polite and formal letter. Without thinking I just wrote down, ‘and Baba if you want Meher Mount, I’ll keep it for you through hell, fire, and damnation.’ I signed it and sent it off.” [20]
“Now, why did I do that?” She asked herself when she was telling the story in Mandali Hall in Meherazad, India, in 1982.
“It’s only in hindsight that I see that from the very beginning a little string that Baba had me like a little fish pulling me along like this. So anyway, I sent it off, and so He had been doing that all this time to keep me to my promise of hell, fire, and damnation.” [21]
Meher Baba wrote back what she called a very sweet letter saying, He appreciated and loved Agnes very much and that she, by all means, should keep Meher Mount for Him.
“I didn’t say anything to the man [Bosberg],” Agnes continued, “but I made up my mind that this place is not his. He lied to get it in his name, mind you.
“Jean had started a Meher Mount board, and he was to be on it. But when he had it with his name, the board wouldn’t mean anything. She and he and I were to be on the board. I don’t know why I was on it. But anyway, it went on for a long time until finally he kept sending people in, very elaborate psychic people. It was really very weird.
“And I didn’t know what to do, but I only knew that the man was not going to get possession of it. Finally, it came to a climax, and he wrote a letter and he said, ‘I have been sending a lot of people interested in putting money into the place with me up to Meher Mount.’ I don’t know if he called it Meher Mount or not. And he said, they always come away and say no, they are not interested. Now what are you doing?! What are you and that Meher Baba doing to these people?!
“And he said Baba was a black magician and I was under His powers and all that nonsense. So, after a few letters, I got very angry, and I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘Look. Stop writing this nonsense. The place isn’t yours. It belongs to Meher Baba, make up your mind to that.’ And I said, ‘From now on I’m not going to write you anymore. I’m not going to answer any of your stupid letters.’ And I said, ‘Enough.’” [22]
“So, anyway, I received no more letters,” she said.
John Starr Cooke Becomes an Owner
Then John Cooke turned up sometime around 1948. John Starr Cooke was a member of the family of heirs to the Castle & Cooke of Hawaii fortune. He was a restless young man exploring many mystical, occult, and counterculture movements. He expressed a deep interest in Meher Baba and offered to help Agnes secure Meher Mount from the grasp of Bosberg.
At the same time, he insisted the way to do that meant putting the property into his name. It appears this effort was successful, as it was recorded as in the name of John S. and Wilma V. (Belknap) Cooke when it was transferred to Agnes Baron’s name on November 24, 1959, as directed by Meher Baba.
[Research has not so far turned up County records of an earlier transfer of Meher Mount to Bosberg or to the Cooke family.]
Agnes says John Cooke secured the property, paid off the mortgage, and provided her with several hundred dollars a month for about six years. He told her to do as she felt best in operating Meher Mount for Meher Baba. [23]
In a September 3, 1956, letter from Adi K. Irani to Agnes, Adi wrote “I sent your letter to Baba and He informed me through Mani [Meher Baba’s sister], that whatever you say about Meher Mount is O.K.…” [24]
The letter continued, “He deeply appreciates your love and feelings, and sends His Love to you.” [25]
Agnes says that in 1952, John came back to Meher Mount from North Africa paralyzed and, as she put it, “something happened to his mind. And he was taking [mind-altering] drugs.” [26]
When Agnes called him on his behavior and his drug taking, he got angry and said he wanted his money back. She quoted John Cooke as saying, “God has whims, and God changes his mind, and I am God.”
Agnes reported that with his sister’s help, he wrote to Baba for support, and Adi sent a copy of his letter to Agnes along with Baba’s reply to John, in which Baba said, “I love Agnes dearly and I trust her implicitly and she’s staying on at Meher Mount.” [27]
AGNES BARON and Avatar Meher Baba on August 2, 1956, when He visited Meher Mount. They are in the ‘Baba House’ that was destroyed in the 1985 New Life. (Photo: Meher Mount Archives)
Then John and his sister angrily left Meher Mount. [28]
Agnes’ account of her 1952 meeting with Baba in Myrtle Beach included Baba telling her, “I don’t want John connected with the name of Meher Baba, with Meher Mount, that he doesn’t have love. Now you must get him out of the picture entirely.”
But, He said, “No coercion.”
And in a November 15, 1957, letter from Adi K. Irani, Meher Baba’s secretary wrote, “PS: Dear Agnes – Baba prefers to have the entire Meher Mount transferred in your name.” [29]
It took almost seven years for Agnes to convince John and his wife Wilma to willingly transfer Meher Mount to Agnes Baron.
She said, “So I had to pay…the whole amount. I had to take on the whole thing [mortgage and expenses] again. [30] [There appear to be several transactions related to Agnes’ efforts to finance the property from 1959 to 1963.]
Agnes Baron was 100% responsible for Meher Mount. And she carried that responsibility all alone.
Footnotes
[1] Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 3048, accessed May 3, 2020. (c) Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.
[2] Kalchuri, ibid., pg. 3048, accessed May 3, 2020.
[3] “Meeting Baba in 1952: Talks by Agnes Baron,” Mandali Hall Talks, Audio. Accessed March 10, 2012.
[4] “The Beloved’s Watchdog: Agnes Baron Remembers Her Life with Meher Baba.” Video. (Walnut Creek: Gateway Mediaworks, 1998)
[5] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, ibid.
[6] Kalchuri, op.cit., pg. 3047, accessed May 3, 2020.
[7] Kalchuri, ibid., pg. 3047, accessed May 3, 2020.
[8] Kalchuri, ibid., pg. 3047, accessed May 3, 2020.
[9] Bing Heckman, “Agnes Baron and Meher Mount,” Meher Baba Center of Northern California Quarterly Newsletter, Fall 1994, Vol. 24, pg. 1. ©Avatar Meher Baba Center of Northern California.
[10] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, op.cit.
[11] Heckman, op. cit., pp. 1-2.
[12] Agnes Baron, “Beginning,” Mandali Hall Talks. Recorded in Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, in September 1982, accessed online on August 2, 2021.
[13] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, op.cit.
[14] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, ibid.
[15] Mandali Hall Talks, op.cit.
[16] Beloved’s Watchdog Video, op.cit.
[17] Beloved’s Watchdog, ibid.
[18] Mandali Hall Talks, op.cit.
[19] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[20] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[21] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[22] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[23] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[24] Letter from Adi K. Irani to Agnes Baron, September 3, 1956, Meher Mount Archives.
[25] Irani, ibid.
[26] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[27] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[28] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.
[29] Letter from Adi K. Irani to Agnes Baron, November 17, 1957, Meher Mount Archives.
[30] Mandali Hall Talks, ibid.