What does it mean to say that Sai Baba 'left his body'? Was he subject to death like ordinary people?

According to the teachings in Chapter 43, Sai Baba was not subject to death in the ordinary sense. For saints who incarnate by their own will for the welfare of devotees, birth and death are described as false imaginations. The text explains that death is the nature of the body, but Sai Samarth, being the complete Supreme Brahman, is devoid of bodily impulses. He burned his body in the fire of Yoga and merged into his unmanifest state, a process that is seen as his spontaneous play. As Chapter 43 states, for such beings, death is like an eclipse—merely a defect of vision for the observer.