What is the spiritual significance of Sai Baba drinking the mixture of oil and water before lighting the lamps?

The account in Chapter 5 provides a key detail about the spiritual nature of this miracle. Before using water in the lamps, Baba took the tin pot with the last bit of oil, added water to it, and then drank it himself. The text specifies he did this while 'making it an offering to Brahman (the Supreme).' This act frames the entire event not merely as a show of power, but as a sacred offering. By consecrating the water through this internal offering, he demonstrated that the resulting light was a manifestation of divine grace, not a property of the physical fuel.