And that embrace. It's like the salt doll falling into the ocean. Something is gone—you don't know what. Call it sanskaras—sins--complexes—what does it matter? Its gone. And your heart and mind are lighter, because Light has touched darkness.

What is Sahavas? Give and take of Love. Not only is Baba's love poured on you, in person, but you, in person, have the chance of loving him. The heart of the lover too, must obey the law of Love . . . even if our love most of the time falls into the realm of devotion. Baba says, "Devotion burns the Beloved, Love burns the lover." But even the lover needs the sight of his Beloved.

A man was planning to go to the Sahavas, then decided he didn't need to go, because, he said, he was "getting it all within." Of course. God is within, Baba is within. Maybe you are a saint, maybe you do get Baba within. Why then are the saints and masts of India so happy to see Baba "without?" Why does he himself travel hundreds of thousands of miles to make personal, physical contact with these advanced souls?

Why indeed, does God take any human form at all? Why make contact with humanity in human form—with the masses, with the devotees, with his beloved saints and masts? Why indeed? Because God, though impersonal, is also a Person. He must make contact with us as a Person, in his human form of Avatar. Why? To speed up our growth as persons. To spark the gap, to close the circuit of divine Love flowing through the whole chain of evolution. Only the living link, the God-man-Barzac* can close the infinite gap between God and man . . . at the cost of what suffering and limitation, only he knows. The whole universe swings, chained to his feet. Its weight, its burden is immeasurable. But if we touch his feet, acknowledge the free gift of his presence and his love, the gap will close for an instant. And maybe his burden becomes a fraction lighter.

What is Sahavas? The give and take of Love.

"The only miracle for a Perfect One is to make others perfect too, to make them realize the Infinite State, which he himself enjoys. That is a real miracle . . . otherwise, miracles have nothing to do with truth at all." . . . Baba

* Evolutionary Link (Sufi)