When devotees feel grief over Sai Baba's physical departure, how should they understand his nature?

The source text from Chapter 43 offers a profound perspective for devotees grieving Sai Baba's physical departure. It explains that for beings like Sai Samarth, who are a "mass of bliss," the concepts of birth and death are illusory. He is the complete Supreme Brahman, for whom bodily impulses and consciousness of the body do not exist. His physical presence was for the protection and welfare of his devotees, and when that task was complete, he merged into his unmanifest, true form. As Chapter 43 states, he didn't truly die but "burned the body in the fire of Yoga" and now "stayed in the hearts of the devotees." He continues to enjoy his true self and keeps his devotees awake, transcending the material state.