How did Sai Baba's strange act of grinding wheat actually serve to protect the village?

According to the narrative in Chapter 1, Sai Baba's act of grinding wheat was a divine play with a hidden purpose. The villagers initially saw him grinding and were filled with wonder, but no one understood the reason. After the flour was ground, Baba instructed the women to throw it on the village boundary. It was later revealed that the wheat was not merely grain; it symbolically represented the cholera epidemic that was afflicting the area. By grinding the 'wheat' into 'flour' and having it cast out, Baba was metaphorically grinding the enemy epidemic and driving it away from the village. The text explicitly states, "The wheat was not wheat, but the cholera epidemic; he ground the enemy in the mill and then made them throw that 'flour' on the boundary." This act of inconceivable cause and effect led to the immediate end of the bad days as the disease began to recede.