In plain words
The Veda itself is the Rāmāyaṇa, and the Rāmāyaṇa itself is the Veda. To recognise this truth and live by it is man's Dharma.
In every family the Rāmāyaṇa holds out an ideal to parents, to brothers and to sisters, and brings them joy. Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna were the sons of King Daśaratha. But it is not enough to know only this much; we must enquire into the inner meaning. Who is Daśaratha? The five organs of action and the five organs of knowledge: the body made up of these ten senses is Daśaratha. Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna were not born like ordinary human beings. They are embodiments of consciousness who came forth from the fire. In this Kali age brothers lose their unity, let quarrels grow and fall into hardship. But in that age Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna never once quarrelled. They went about in unity and in close affection, and kept giving joy and an ideal to all.
One day in their childhood, while the four brothers were playing together, Bharata came running, sat in Kausalyā's lap and wept. “Why are you crying, my son? Did you lose the game?” she asked; and Bharata: “Mother! If I had lost, I would have been happy. But just when I was about to lose, Rāma lost on purpose and let me win. I am very sad that I have caused my elder brother's defeat,” he said. In this way, from childhood, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna lived with great love, in unity and in close affection.
‘No brother like Lakṣmaṇa is to be found’
Rāma loved his brothers as his own life. When Lakṣmaṇa fell senseless in the battle: “If I search this world, I may find even a wife like Sītā; I may be granted even a mother like Kausalyā.