What is the purpose of avatars like Sai Baba, and how do they view birth and death?

The primary purpose of great souls and avatars like Sai Baba is the welfare of their devotees and humanity at large. As Chapter 43 describes, they incarnate by their own will, not due to karmic compulsion, with the sole desire to help others. They are personifications of the form of Brahman, appearing on earth for the 'gathering of people.' For such beings, the conventional states of birth and death are not applicable. These events are seen as false imaginations. When their designated task is complete, they do not 'die' in the ordinary sense but instead merge back into their true, unmanifest form, transcending the material state they had temporarily adopted for their work.