Under a big tree, another big tree cannot grow

 

Yogi Ramsuratkumar

(from "Amarakavyam - Biography of Yogi Ramsuratkumar"):  

Ram Surat Kunwar again prayed to Swami Ramdas to allow him and his family to live in the ashram. He said, “Papa, I have come here with the great hope that you would allow me with my family to live here. I am not able to work anywhere since from the initiation. If you drive me away, where shall I go and how can I live?” Papa vehemently answered, “Go and beg. You cannot live in the ashram. There are enough people in the ashram to work. Remember, under a big tree, another big tree cannot grow. Only thorny bushes and grass alone can grow”. Ram Surat Kunwar was shocked on listening to the words of his Master. He exclaimed, “Papa, should I beg for my food? Am I a beggar, Papa?” Papa, without answering, went inside. From that day Ram Surat Kunwar called himself ‘beggar’. His guru, his master, his God asked him to beg and so he became a ‘beggar’. 

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(from bio of Bodhi (Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari)):

At his Guru’s ashram, Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari found himself in a situation which was like crocodile infested water. Naïve, innocent, and simple-hearted, his sensitive soul with transparent emotions found itself amidst nasty double-faced ashram politics. The only solace for his tender and spiritual heart was to serve his Guru and spend every drop of his blood for the ashram by building it brick by brick, from start to finish. He silently faced continuous humiliation from the committee members for he was the apple of the Master’s eyes, much to everyone’s envy. His blatant honesty and strict adherence to conscientious values earned him many insecure acquaintances who feared his presence but slandered him behind his back. He found that his Master was a Mother whose heart was a vast banyan tree that never refused shelter to any of her children be it a scorpion beneath her roots or a cuckoo bird on her branches.

After serving his master for 12 years, the Master secretly instructed him to leave the ashram and join the ashram of the universe where there were no walls to bind him and the sky was the limit to expand his deepest spiritual potentials— “You must leave the shelter of this banyan tree. If you forever remain under its shade, you will remain a creeper plant clinging to my body like all others. You are born to become a banyan tree to offer shelter to thousands of lives underneath.” By this time, his Master was not the external physical presence for him but was a non-separate entity of his own existence.