According to the source material, what is the role of the speaker and listener in the narration of Sai's stories?

According to the text from Chapter 36, the speaker and the listener are simply conduits or pretexts in the process of narrating Sai's stories. The chapter explains that the ego or "I-ness" of the speaker is irrelevant because the "playful Sai himself takes over and makes his own qualities heard by his devotees." This implies that Sai Baba is the true narrator, who loves his own stories and provides memories of them. As detailed in Chapter 36, the ultimate purpose of this divine arrangement is to fulfill the desires of the devotees, purify the ears of the listeners and mouths of the speakers, and remove the misery of worldly existence.