She made a beautiful temple in Dakshineshwar, near Calcutta, so that she could worship. But then a problem arose: no priest was willing to worship in her temple. The temple also became untouchable. The god inside the temple also became untouchable because an untouchable woman had made the temple – strange logic. The woman had not even touched the temple – and all the temples are made by untouchables. The bricks are made by them, everything that a temple needs for its construction is made by the lowest untouchable class, but no temple is untouchable. Even the statues of the gods are carved by untouchables – stonecutters – but those gods are not untouchables. And this woman had simply used her money…Now can you say because the money comes from an untouchable, it becomes untouchable?
Money passes through thousands of hands. That’s why it’s other name is currency – it is always moving, it is a current. The notes that you have in your pocket may have moved through thousands of hands. Many untouchable people, Mohammedans, Christians, may have touched them. They may be carrying all kinds of diseases, because people who have tuberculosis, who have cancer, who have AIDS, may have used them. In fact, the whole system of currency is absolutely unhygienic and it should be changed. It is unscientific.
You should have credit cards which belong to you and remain with you and that don’t change hands. Currency is simply ugly, and it may be spreading many diseases. But no medical experts are raising their voices against it.
But in Dakshineshwar, Rani Rasmani Devi’s temple remained empty, because no brahmin was ready to worship in it. She searched all over Bengal, and this young man, Ramakrishna – he was only twenty years old – said, “There is no problem. I will come.”
His whole society condemned him. People told him, “You are destroying yourself. You will be expelled from brahmin status. You are falling down. You are becoming an untouchable.”
He said, “I don’t care, but I cannot see one god remaining unworshipped. I am ready to risk myself, but I cannot risk that poor god.”
Against everybody – against his family, against everybody – he went, but he was a strange person. He started worshipping.
Rani Rasmani was really a graceful woman, very wise. Even though the temple started with a priest, she never entered the temple. She would always come, remain outside where people leave their shoes, sit there – and she was the queen – and just watch from the door, the worship, Ramakrishna dancing, singing…But the problem was that sometimes Ramakrishna would sing for hours and dance for hours. All the other people who had come would leave – he would continue alone. And sometimes he would not even open the doors of the temple, he would put a lock on the door.
Rani Rasmani called him and asked, “What is the matter? Sometimes you worship for hours. I have heard that some days you worship the whole day, and sometimes for days you don’t open the temple.”
He said, “It is between me and my god. Nobody has to interfere. When he is graceful to me, I am graceful to him. When he starts behaving rudely, then I give him a lesson! Then I tell him, ‘Remain without food for two or three days and you will come to your senses.’”
Rani Rasmani Devi said, “What are you talking about? It is just a stone statue.”