The text says Sai Baba left his body, but also that he didn't really die. How does it reconcile these two ideas?

Chapter 43 reconciles this by differentiating between the physical body and the true self. While it acknowledges the event that 'they say he left the body,' it reframes it not as death but as a voluntary act of a great Yogi. The text explains that Sai Samarth could die at will, and he chose to burn his physical form in the 'fire of Yoga' to merge into the unmanifest. It emphasizes that he remains eternally present in the hearts of his devotees. The author expresses that the mind cannot accept that the consciousness-filled body of Baba could truly perish, suggesting his essence is immortal and his departure was a merging with his true, beginningless and endless self.