Even the meaning of the various Sahavas in which some of us took part is not easy to plumb. As in the life of Jesus, only the back-light of history will illumine some of these phases—if then. The "God-Man" is after all the God-man and not given to explaining His life to us, for "His " language is not "our" language, as He points out in The Final Declaration.

Others have criticized Purdom for his last chapters of personal opinion, but surely as devotee and author he has a right to them. It is certainly better to separate out one's point of view from historical fact, as he has done.

One reader questioned Mr. Purdom's précis of Baba's teaching on reincarnation, i.e., that one reincarnates only from human form to human form, when consciousness is full. Mani, Babas sister, answered:

"About your query on reincarnation—the term is loosely used to mean the donning of a new form in a following birth. Strictly speaking, reincarn­ation applies only to (the) human form, because the dropping and attaining of the forms is the same—i.e., the human form. You drop one human form and attain another human form. Whereas in evolution (evolution of consciousness), you attain different forms, from stone to metal, fish, animals, etc., to attain fuller consciousness, until you attain the human form when consciousness is full and complete, and with it ceases evolution of consciousness and any further evolution of forms.

"Even if a dog-form drops and the soul takes another dog-form, it is not correct to apply the term 'reincarnation,’ because consciousness is still in the process of evolution; and it follows that the form is also in the process of evolution even though in this case (illustrating the dog-form) the difference is imperceptible. Instead of saying—as you wrote— ''reincarnating from stone to metal to plant, etc.,' it should be 'evolving from stone to metal to plant, etc. ' '

Although Mr. Purdom was correct on this point, there are others that need clarification new edition is inevitable. (The latest news is that there will be a new edition of God Speaks, with points clarified by Baba, who has said He will not break the Silence and manifest until this new edition of God Speaks is published!) Meanwhile The God-Man still remains our first and finest biography of Baba, though undoubtedly the precursor of many. Incidentally, he quotes many pages from the Sahavas issues of The Awakener.

 We have just heard Charles "came" to his beloved BABA on July 8.