Who was Vijayananda, and what transpired during his interaction with Swami Somdevji in Shirdi?

As narrated in Chapter 31, Vijayananda was a sannyasi from Madras who was on a pilgrimage to Mansarovar. He made a stop in Shirdi after hearing about Sai Baba's glory. In Shirdi, he encountered Swami Somdevji of Haridwar. Vijayananda asked him about the journey to Mansarovar, and the Swami's response was quite discouraging. Swami Somdevji informed him that it was five hundred miles away, involved traversing areas with heavy snow and changing languages, and that outsiders faced significant hardship. Hearing this news from the Swami's mouth, as the chapter describes, made the sannyasi dejected and distressed.