[6] In his teachings, he regarded the practice of "self-enquiry" (atma vichara) as highly effective in helping a seeker attain self-realization.

His grandfather, Pandit Lachhman Joo Bhan was a wazir wazarat (deputy commissioner) of revenue department in the Dogra regime of the then-princely state of Kashmir.

[11][12][13] His father, Pandit Narayan Joo Bhan dealt in the business of cashmere wool and devoted much of his time to spiritual pursuits.

[14] Bhagwan Gopinath's mother, Haar Maal, was the daughter of Pandit Prasad Joo Parimoo who was an initiated disciple of a local saint.

[15] Prasad Joo had initiated his younger daughter, Zapaer Ded, into Japa Yoga and eventually in her fifties, she was recognised as a saint.

[14] There have been some unconfirmed reports that Swami Vivekananda, who happened to be in Kashmir during 1898, had paid a visit to the Bhans' family on occasion of Bhagwan Gopinath's birth.

[13][17] After having given up his ancestral home in favour of his step mother, Pandit Narayan Joo Bhan, along with young Gopinath who at that time must have been around 10 years old, started moving around, living at various rental accommodations.

However, he had a marked interest for Bhagvad Gita and had kept a copy of the book close to where he would sit for his meditation right till his last day.

[21] During his early years, young Gopinath would accompany his maternal uncle, Pandit Bhagwan Das Parimoo, who was a devotee of Sharika Bhagwati (the deity of the shrine of Hari Parbat), on annual or biannual trips to the holy spring at Pokhribal to desilt it from all the accumulated offerings of devotees.

[15] As a leader of a group of young men, he would often organise trips to local shrines like Kheer Bhawani, Mattan, Mahadev and Vicharnaag.

[6] He would regularly attend gatherings of these saints discussing spiritual and philosophical topics on vedanta, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and Kashmir Shaivism.

[6][24] S. N. Fotedar, his principal biographer, who was associated with him for over two decades, tried to lay his hands on all the evidence he could in this regard and finally settled with the opinion that Swami Zanakak Tufchi was his spiritual master.

Although Mr Fotedar got convinced with this idea, he was not able to establish it conclusively as an accepted fact particularly amongst Bhagwan Gopinath's devotees at large.

[6][24] Based on Bhagwan Gopinath's comments about Bhagvad Gita, majority of his devotees, including some religious writers, consider him to have been self initiated.

[26] The tenure of his spiritual practice can be divided into the following three stages: From his younger years, Bhagwan Gopinath would devote much of his time attending religious gatherings of singers (called bhajan mandalis) singing glories of God and deities of Kheer Bhawani and Hari Parbat shrines.

He was often found meditating for long hours at the shrine courtyard while smoking his pipe (called chillum in local language).

[30] During this period, he is known to have resorted to extreme measures of sense control which involve self-abnegation methods like fasting for months together (having just a cup of tea a day) while taking huge quantities of food at other times.

On one occasion his sister reminded him of the financial difficulties they were going through but he is said to have responded by saying (translated here into English) "our boat is in the middle of ocean right now, either we would reach ashore safe or drown".

He started the practice of blowing air at live charcoals in his fire pot (called kanger in local language) sometimes for hours together.

As such, various religious commentators along with his devotees have found it difficult to classify his spiritual journey into a particular school of Indian philosophical thought.

[33] Its widely believed that he must have followed the tenets of trika doctrine of advaita (non-dual) Kashmir Shaivism (in which, the Goddess Bhairavi-Aghoreshwari is enthroned above God Bhairava and is the main ideal of worship[34]) with jnana (knowledge), iccha (will) and kriya (action) having had a dominating influence on him.

[9] Gathering from various hymns written by him, it is evident that he had an inclination towards Bhakti tradition as well, which is also indicated by his fondness for Indian classical music and the pictures of Guru Nanak and Ramakrishna that adorned his walls.

[45] Bhagwan Ramji, a practitioner of Aghor Yoga from Kreem Kund in Varanasi, described his spiritual state as that of an Aghoreshwar.

[4] From around 1938, his devotees started recording and attributing various miracles to him[28][46] like treating incurable diseases, blessing issueless couple with children, bringing back dead to life as the situation demanded, bilocation, mindreading, materialisation, helping people to see the deity of local shrines like Kheer Bhawani and Hari Parbat in human form and also in the form of their effulgence and many more, which have been meticulously documented primarily by his principal biographer and also by other devotees.

[46] On 3 July 1999, an officer of the 18th Battalion of The Grenadiers regiment of Indian Army reportedly sighted him at the battle front during Kargil war, directing assault operation to recapture Tiger Hills.

[49] A couple years before dying he was often heard remarking that he had grown old and this to some of his devotees was him dropping hints about his final days being imminently close.

On the morning of 28 May 1968, as a part of his daily routine, he washed his face, tied his turban and smeared his forehead with a saffron mark (called tilak in Hinduism).

He used to give alms to these visiting sadhus (some of whom he would call as mere jugglers in ochre robes) who, on their journey to Amarnath shrine, would stop-over at his place.