"So no brahmin was ready to become a priest in her temple – as if the God in the temple had also become a sudra, an untouchable.

"The queen, Rani Rasmani, was very cautious about it. She never entered the temple; she always stood outside the door and from there she gave her gratitude and thanks to God. But the brahmins were all absolutely against becoming a priest in a sudra temple. The temple had also become sudra. But Ramakrishna, when he heard about it, accepted the post. He was a high-caste brahmin, and all of the brahmins condemned him, boycotted him. But he laughed. He said, 'Whoever makes the temple cannot change the quality of God.' Against his whole society, he accepted the post. And his worship was also strange. He was a strange man…very colorful.

"Sometimes he will worship the whole day, from morning till evening. People were amazed…sometimes he will worship the whole day from morning till evening, and sometimes he will not worship at all – he will not even open the doors of the temple, he will keep them locked.

"It was reported, and Rasmani could not believe it. She asked Ramakrishna, 'What kind of worship is this?' He said, 'I am not a man of rituals; I trust in love. When God behaves well with me I worship the whole day, and when He is adamant, stubborn, then I boycott Him completely – I don't even give Him food. Just within two, three days, He comes to his senses.' Rasmani must have been a woman of great understanding. She could see the innocence of Ramakrishna, that he was not a priest in the ordinary sense.

"Then it was reported that first, before offering food to God, he tasted it and then he offered it. 'This is sacrilegious, this is too much,' people said. Again he was called, 'What are you doing? Don't you know that you should not taste the food first. First God has to take it, it has to be offered to Him; then you can distribute it, and you can take it.'

"He said, 'You can accept my resignation, but I cannot do anything against my heart."