Ilai never begged, and if anyone were to offer him money or even accidentally mention it in his presence, he became furious. But his outward condition mattered not to Baba, who confirmed that Ilai was a great yogi. Baba was so gladdened with the meeting, in fact, that after this contact he gave each of the men with him a coconut in Ilai Swami's honor.
The same day, Baba and the mandali took a bus to Tiruppur, where Baba wished to contact Prasananand Swami Guru. When they arrived, they started looking for the Swami's house and happened to ask an elderly Brahmin, who turned out to be somewhat unbalanced. He excitedly said that he would personally guide them and jumped into their already overcrowded tonga.
Prasananand was a good yogi, 50 years old, and had a wife and children. When they arrived, they were informed that Prasananand was fasting on water and had taken a vow of silence for 40 days. He had rigged up a sort of cell in one of the rooms of his house where he was currently sitting, while one of his followers kept guard to see that he was not disturbed.
When the men began talking with one of Prasananand's devotees about approaching him for contact, the madcap Brahmin slipped into the Swami's room and began frantically scribbling notes on scraps of paper and pushing them into Prasananand's cell. The notes read: "Please allow this stranger to contact you."
As usual, whenever Baba would arrive in a village or small town, a crowd gathered to have a look at the strangers. As Eruch was busy talking with a devotee, a man with a palsied arm stood next to him and put his other arm lightly around Eruch's shoulder in a gesture of friendship — or so Eruch thought. Eruch was carrying a wad of ten-rupee notes in his upper pocket, and though he did not see the act, he heard a crisp sound, turned quickly and saw the man holding two notes in his hand. Because of the crowd, Eruch did not say anything, but he caught a firm hold of the man's wrist and dragged him behind the house, determined to give him a few hard slaps for picking his pocket. He raised his arm to strike him when suddenly someone caught his arm from behind.