If saints like Sai Baba are truly beyond birth and death, what is the purpose of them taking on a physical body and living in the world?

The text explains that the incarnation of great souls like Sai Baba, who are beyond the cycles of birth and death, serves a specific and benevolent purpose. As Chapter 43 clarifies, they take avatars 'With the sole desire for the welfare of devotees.' Their appearance in a physical form, like Baba in Shirdi, is for the 'sake of the devotees’ protection.' These beings are described as the 'personification of the form of Brahman,' and their entire existence on earth is for helping others. Chapter 43 states that 'The rise of such Great Souls has the welfare of people as its purpose.' Once their task is complete, they merge back into their unmanifest true form, having fulfilled their mission of uplifting humanity.