How did Sai Baba help people when he first arrived in the village?

When Maharaj first arrived, he primarily helped people by providing medical assistance. As described in Chapter 0, he would give people medicines and never took any money for this service. He was deeply compassionate; if he found that a patient was not being cared for properly, he would go and personally tend to them himself. The text mentions there were still many people in the area whom Maharaj had treated and cared for. Later, he stopped this practice of giving medicine and instead began giving out Udi, or holy ash, which also brought benefits to people.