The (partial) story behind the name of this
masterpiece is as follows:
In the course of the Lifehouse project, Pete Townshend was experimenting with a new programable synthesizer. One could enter the characteristics of a person (height, weight etc...) into the synth and it would spit out a diddy supposedly based on that entered data.
So Townshend entered the data for 60s hippy Hindu guru Meher Baba and out came that synth loop we know so well, and an explanation for at least the 'Baba' part of the song title.