What was the symbolic meaning behind Sai Baba grinding wheat and what did he have done with the flour?

The act of grinding wheat was a powerful, symbolic play by Sai Baba to heal the village. According to the account in Chapter 1, the grain was not ordinary wheat but a representation of the cholera epidemic. Baba was metaphorically grinding the disease itself, destroying its power in his mill. After the grinding was complete, he did not keep the flour or give it away as food. Instead, he commanded the women who had helped him, "Go and throw this flour on the village boundary (Shiwar) now." As Chapter 1 recounts, once the flour was thrown near the stream on the village outskirts, the disease began to recede and the epidemic ended. This illustrated Baba's unique and inconceivable method of protecting his devotees by tackling spiritual or physical maladies through seemingly unrelated physical actions.