In plain words
To sing this sacred principle of Rāma as a song and to tell it as a story is truly your good fortune. You must not think of Rāma as merely the son of Daśaratha. Rāma has no separate form of his own. All living beings are embodiments of Rāma! The one who gives delight, he is Rāma. So each one of you must become one who gives delight. ‘Īśvarassarvabhūtānāṃ’, ‘Īśāvāsyamidaṃ jagat’: this whole world is the form of God itself! All are embodiments of Īśvara! All are embodiments of Rāma! All are embodiments of God! That is why: ‘Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Lakṣmaṇa …’ such are the names we give ourselves.
Ūrmilā's spirit of sacrifice
Not only Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna: their wives too set a great ideal. Sītā, Ūrmilā, Māṇḍavī and Śrutakīrti, all four, were women of great virtue; they looked on the joy of others as their own joy. When Rāma set out for the forest, Sītā: “Lord! You are the one who came down for the uplift of mankind. I too am a part of that, am I not? You are going to the forest having renounced every attachment. So I too, renouncing every attachment, am coming with you,” she said. She cast off all her ornaments and set out with Rāma.
Lakṣmaṇa's wife Ūrmilā was greatly skilled in the art of painting. She was sitting in her room, painting the scene of Śrī Rāma's coronation finely in colours, when Lakṣmaṇa came and called, ‘Ūrmilā!’ ‘What is it, my lord?’ she said, and rose to her feet. As she rose, the paint that was there spilt by accident over the picture she had drawn. ‘Alas, the picture I drew so beautifully is spoilt!’ she grieved. Then Lakṣmaṇa said: “Ūrmilā! Kaikeyī has spoilt the coronation of Śrī Rāma, which was to bring good to the world. I have spoilt the picture you drew.