The Satcharita says Baba 'left the body,' but what does that really mean for a being like him? Is he considered dead in the normal sense?

According to Chapter 43, the concept of death as we know it does not apply to Sai Baba. The text posits that for saints, death is like a solar eclipse—merely a defect of vision, not a true end. Sai Samarth is described as the 'complete Supreme Brahman,' for whom birth and death are meaningless as he is devoid of bodily impulses. His departure was a voluntary act where he 'burned the body in the fire of Yoga' and 'merged himself into the unmanifest.' The author asserts that the idea of his body perishing is something the mind cannot accept, as he remains eternally present in the hearts of devotees and, in his true form, fills the entire world.