As a police inspector, Śrīla Gurudeva spent most of his time away from Tiwārīpura. He occasionally took leave and returned home to stay with his family, especially when there were festivals and large gatherings of sādhus in Tiwārīpura, such as during the month-long festival of Kumbha Melā in the spring.
One Kumbha Melā, a yogī came and boasted to the villagers, “I have undergone severe austerities for twelve years and have achieved the perfection of yoga. Now I can walk across water!”
All the villagers gathered at the riverside, eager to witness the yogī’s mystic feat. Hearing of the yogī’s boasting, Śrīla Gurudeva also went along to observe. Wearing a deerskin loincloth, wooden shoes, and holding a large waterpot, the yogī walked across the river and back with ease, head held high. The villagers were amazed and began to revere him greatly, but the wise village leader was unmoved by the performance. By his influence, the other villagers also gave less regard to the yogī. The yogī approached the village leader and asked, “Are you not impressed? By crossing the river I have defied the laws of nature; that is no small feat.”
“You think that you are so great,” the leader said, “but we have a man in our village who is thousands of times greater than you. He is a great devotee! As a mere boy, he brought his schoolmate back to life from a fatal snake bite by faithfully chanting the holy names of Lord Rāma.”
“Where is he?” the yogī said eagerly. “Please take me to him.”
He was brought to Śrīla Gurudeva, who was able to recognize him behind the beard and dreadlocks as the same boy he had saved in his childhood. Seeing each other, they embraced, delighted to meet again.
The yogī triumphantly exclaimed, “Just see what I have become!”
“What have you learned that is truly worthwhile?” Gurudeva asked. “Anyone can cross a river by boat for just a single coin. But can you walk across the vast ocean of suffering in material existence? Time is the most valuable treasure in this world, yet you have wasted many years of your life learning a cheap trick. If you had spent that time worshiping God, you could have gained pure love for Him, making your life successful. What is the use of this mystic achievement if it cannot save you from the cycle of birth and death?”
Embarrassed, the yogī asked, “What do you suggest I do?”
“Bhakti-yoga is the only process that can save you from the misery of material life and take you to the shelter of Bhagavān’s lotus feet,” Śrīla Gurudeva said. “Kṛṣṇa Himself says in the Bhagavad-gītā that bhakti-yoga is supreme among all types of spiritual endeavors:
yogīnām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
Bhagavad-gītā 6.47
I consider the yogī who constantly worships Me with great faith, and who deeply absorbs his mind in loving attachment to Me, to be the topmost of all yogīs.
Śrīla Gurudeva described the supremacy of bhakti-yoga to his friend, who lost his desire for fame and became eager to develop a relationship with God. Later in life, he received dīkṣā (formal initiation) from a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācārya and was given the name Prema-prayojana. He travelled to Uttara Kāśī, high in the Himālayas, and daily chanted three lakhs of harināma (300,000 holy names).