What specific vow did Cholkar make, and what worldly obstacle prevented him from fulfilling it sooner?

Cholkar's vow was to give up sugar until he could make a pilgrimage to Shirdi. According to Chapter 15, he treated sugar as an "inedible substance" and even drank his tea unsweetened during this period. The fulfillment of his vow was delayed due to financial difficulties. The text poetically describes this struggle as the "threshold-ghat" (home expenses), which it states is "very difficult to cross" for a worldly man. This obstacle meant a significant amount of time passed before he could finally travel to Shirdi, offer sugar and a coconut, and complete the vow he had made to Sai Baba.