Karma Yoga Is a Central Practice in Agnes Baron's Life
Sam L. Ervin
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.