In plain words
Am I the same as that, or do I stand with the special worth of a man?": so he kept asking himself. From the next day he began to sing of Rāma. He made friends with the people of some āśrams. On some sheets of paper, and on some leaves too, he began the story called Rāmakathāmānasa. This is the Rāmāyaṇa of Tulasīdās. He went on writing it in the form of a poem. After that, sitting in a lonely place, picturing in his mind the divinity, the beauty and the ideals of his Rāma, he began 326 ślokas in a petition, that is, what is called an arzī.
In this place there were great crowds of people, so he felt, "I need solitude for writing this story of Rāma." From there he set out for Citrakūṭa. This Citrakūṭa, the mountain, lies between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Half of it is in Uttar Pradesh. Half of it is in Madhya Pradesh. It belongs to the district called Banda. He went in there. Having gone in, he began the story of Rāma every day. He pictured within himself, in his heart, all that was in the Rāmāyaṇa this Narahari Dās told, kept it in his memory, and on that basis went on writing some songs.
One day Tulasīdās was on the mountain of Citrakūṭa, grinding sandal paste for the worship of Rāma and thinking of Rāma. Two small children came in there: "Grandfather! Grandfather! Will you give us this sandal paste?" they said. This Tulasīdās was very strict about ritual purity. No one was to touch him. He himself must stay pure. His feelings too must come pure. The reason is that in those days, when people touched one another, their impurity would pass to these and these people's to them. Not only impurities of the body. Impurities of feeling too may pass. Salutations were begun for the very purpose of touching sacred great souls, sacred gurus and sacred persons.
When the impure, the uncivil of various kinds and those without character touch us, what they have passes to us: that was the belief of those days.