Hemadpant asked the Shirdi people “What was this (ie. Preparing and taking the wheat-flour to the outskirts of Shirdi and throw it on the village borders) that Baba did?” They replied that as the Cholera Epidemic was spreading in the village and this was Baba’s remedy against the same.
It was not wheat that was ground but the Cholera itself was ground to pieces and pushed out of the village. From this time onward, the Cholera Epidemic subsided and the people of the village were happy.
Hemadpant began to ask himself – “What earthly connection was there between wheat flour and Cholera? What was the casual relation between the two? And how to reconcile them? The incident seems to be inexplicable. I should write something on this and sing to my heart’s content Baba’s sweet Leelas (play). Thinking in this way about this Leela, my heart was filled with joy and I was thus inspired to write Baba’s Life – The Satcharita.”
Philosophical Significance of Grinding :
Apart from the meaning that the people of Shirdi put on this incident of grinding wheat, there is, we think, a philosophical significance too.
Sai Baba lived in Shirdi for about sixty years and during this long period. HE did the business of grinding almost every day. He ground not, however, the wheat alone. He also ground the sins, the mental and physical afflictions, and the miseries of His innumerable devotees.
The two stones of His mill consisted of Karma and Bhakti, the former being the lower and the latter the upper one. The handle with which Baba worked the mill consisted of Jnana. It was the firm conviction of Baba that Knowledge or Self-realization is not possible, unless there is the prior act of grinding of all our impulses, desires, sins; and of the three gunas, viz. Sattva, Raja and Tama; and the Ahamkara, which is so subtle and therefore so difficult to be got rid of.
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"I draw to Me, My man from far off or even across the seven Seas to Shirdi, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet"-Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Guru-God 