"Now, go out and see the view and try to love Baba through nature." - Avatar Meher Baba
By Margaret Magnus
A Foggy Day
It was a foggy day when Avatar Meher Baba arrived at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. “It wasn’t clear. You couldn’t see out across the vistas,” remembered Leatrice Shaw Johnston who was at Meher Mount that day. [1]
“The steep hill of Meher Mount was shrouded in mist as our bus climbed tortuously upward, and when we stepped out we saw, instead of the celebrated view of the Ojai Valley, only a rolling sea of fog, recalled Filis Frederick. [2]
Later, with everyone gathered around Him in the ‘Baba Room’ of the guesthouse, Meher Baba gestured toward the outdoors and said:
“Now, go out and see the view and try to love Baba through nature. This is all due to my love. This whole creation, this nature, all the beauty you see, all came out of me.” [3]
See the view looking toward the Pacific Ocean from Avatar’s Point at Meher Mount in this 48-second video.
A California Shangri-La
As the group tumbled outdoors, Filis Frederick recalled the moment saying, “…and lo, the whole sky began rapidly to clear and one could see for miles the beautiful rolling hills below. Each one meditated in their own way on the incredible view and Baba’s last words.” [4]
Charmian Duce Knowles said they “obediently filed outside, and soon the fog was burning away, unveiling this California Shangri-La with its incredibly beautiful hills and valleys.” [5]
She noted that Meher Baba’s words had special meaning to the group. “The splendor stretched out before us was his work, and when he comes, he touches everything in Creation.
“All things, even stones, have life – and how beautiful life was that morning.” [6]
AVATAR MEHER BABA at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. He is followed by the four men mandali (close disciples) that traveled with Him: Eruch Jessawala (just behind Meher Baba); Adi K. Irani (carrying the briefcase); Meherjee Karkaria (suit and tie); and Dr. Nilu (Vinayak Nilkanth Godse). (Photo: Darwin Shaw, (c) Meher Nazar Publications)
Views in All Directions
At the 2,500-foot level atop Sulphur Mountain, there is a 360-degree panorama of mountains, ocean, islands, and valleys.
Visitors ascend Sulphur Mountain Road from the Upper Ojai Valley backed by Chief Mountain to the north. To the northeast, there is the 6,300-foot Topa Topa Bluffs in the Los Padres National Forest, famous for Ojai's “pink moment,” when the setting sun’s rays illuminate the broad face of the cliffs.
Continuing on the path to Baba’s Tree, there is the Santa Paula Heritage Valley along with the Oxnard Plains to the south. Far in the background are the Santa Monica Mountains.
At Avatar's Point, the view looks out at the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands.
“Take Me with You”
LEATRICE SHAW JOHNSTON describing Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. This video was taken at the 40th anniversary celebration of Meher Baba’s visit in August 1996.
When Meher Baba made the statement to “go out and see the view and try to love Baba through nature,” He added, “take Me with you.”
“And, so that’s what we did,” said Leatrice. “I was walking by the house and I was looking across the valley and I was thinking about Baba. And just then, I was feeling the presence of someone next to me. I turned and to my delight and surprise, it was Baba.
“And I felt that He had kind of snuck up on me and shared that moment. And He was telling me that He was with me as I was seeing Him in nature,” Leatrice said. “The then He turned around and went on.” [7]
A Prophetic Moment at Avatar’s Point
When caretaker Agnes Baron took Meher Baba on a tour of Meher Mount, He was very particular to be shown all the boundary lines and fence posts.
At the point overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Baba’s Tree, Avatar’s Point, He asked Agnes if she knew where the property corner was, pointing to Meher Mount’s southeast corner.
AGNES BARON taking Avatar Meher Baba (blue coat) on a tour of Meher Mount on August 2, 1956. Holding the umbrella is Eruch Jessawala. To the right of Agnes is Meherjee Karkaria. (Photo: Meher Mount Archives)
Gesturing toward the rocky, rugged, and nearly vertical canyon, she said, “I don’t know Baba. It is down in that canyon somewhere.”
In telling this story, Agnes remembered that Meher Baba looked displeased with her response. Over the years, she often remarked, “I wonder why Baba cared about that corner post.”
Then 52 years later that question was answered. In 2008, a boundary survey was conducted. [8]
From that survey, it was discovered that if you followed the boundary line up from that rocky corner in the ravine, the existing fence line between Meher Mount and the southern neighbors was in the wrong place.
The fence had been assumed to be the property line, but it did not follow the boundary line. That meant the neighbors’ solar panel footings belonging to Maj Hagman and Larry Hagman (the actor) were encroaching on Meher Mount property.
It took another five years and two court appearances to settle the property line dispute. In the end, both the Superior Court and then the Appellate Court ruled in the Hagmans’ favor. Before the second ruling, the lawyer for the Hagman estate approached Meher Mount, and the dispute was settled. About an acre of land was ceded to the neighboring property. [9]
That was 57 years after Meher Baba visited.
When the boundaries were physically marked in 2008, as might be imagined, the southeast corner where Meher Baba pointed proved challenging.
Wanting to place a marker on that spot, the surveyors climbed into the ravine, and one of them started a small landslide. The surveyor down below took shelter as boulders the size of soccer balls and several tons of debris flew over his head.
Caretaker Ray Johnston, who joined the surveyors on this project, said he was amazed to see the landslide funneling exactly to the point where they were trying to put in the marker.
He marveled at the amount of energy that was focused on that one point that Meher Baba had asked about as He stood at Avatar’s Point. [10]
THE RECORD OF SURVEY of Meher Mount filed in 2008 that answered Avatar Meher Baba’s question posed 52 years earlier during His visit on August 2, 1956. (Image: Meher Mount)
Footnotes
[1] Leatrice Shaw Johnston, “Leatrice Johnson Shaw – Meher Mount 1996,” YouTube video, 34:17 minutes, the AMBCSC Archives in concert with the Meher Baba Library Oral History Archive Project, minute 6:34, accessed October 23, 2021.
[2] Filis Frederick, “Journey of the Heart,” The Awakener magazine online, Volume 5, Number 2, Winter-Spring 1958, pg. 16, accessed online on October 23, 2021.
[3] Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 4067, accessed online on October 12, 2021. © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.
[4] Frederick, op.cit., accessed online on October 23, 2021.
[5] Charmian Knowles, Spread My Love, (Walnut Creek: Sufism Reoriented), © 2004 by Sufism Reoriented, pg. 138.
[6] Knowles, ibid., pg. 138.
[7] Johnston, op.cit., accessed October 23, 2021.
[8] Margaret Magnus, “An Answer to Meher Baba’s Question,” Meher Mount Story Blog, October 25, 2008, accessed October 23, 2021.
[9] Margaret Magnus & Sam Ervin, “Boundary Dispute Is Settled,” Meher Mount Story Blog, November 1, 2013, accessed October 23, 2021.
[10] Magnus, op.cit., accessed October 23, 2021.