Why did Sai Baba suddenly start grinding wheat in the mosque when he lived on alms and had no use for flour?

The act of Sai Baba grinding wheat, as described in Chapter 1, was a divine play with a purpose far beyond making flour for food. Initially, villagers were puzzled because Baba lived on alms and had no family or household to feed. After the women who helped grind the wheat tried to claim the flour, Baba instructed them to throw it on the village boundary. The true reason, revealed later in Chapter 1, was that the wheat was not merely a grain but a symbol for the cholera epidemic plaguing the village. By grinding the wheat and having the 'flour' cast out, Baba symbolically ground the disease into dust and drove it away, causing the epidemic to recede. This act demonstrated his compassion and his unique, often mysterious, ways of protecting his devotees.