When Dr. Pillay was in extreme pain, he wished for death. What was Sai Baba's response to this request?

When Dr. Pillay was overwhelmed by the pain of his guinea-worm ailment, he sent a message to Sai Baba pleading for death as an escape. As detailed in Chapter 34, he was willing to take ten future births to pay off his karma if his current suffering would end. Hearing this, Baba was compassionate but firm. He admonished this line of thinking, sending a message back asking, "When I am capable of giving liberation, self-interest, or the supreme goal, is this your courage—to ask for the calamity of death?" Rather than granting the wish for death, Baba offered a different solution: "Why the burden of ten births? Let us suffer the consequence of only ten days by dividing it between us." He then had Dr. Pillay brought to the Masjid to endure it together.