In plain words
Ideal figures in the Rāmāyaṇa
Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna, and their wives, practised the principle of Prema, lived it, and gave the world a great ideal. You think that in the Rāmāyaṇa only Rāma is great. No, no. Every one of them is as great as Rāma. You will have heard of Sumitrā, the mother of Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna. She was a woman of great virtue. True to her name, ‘Su-mitrā’, she was a good friend to all. Kaikā had only one son. Kausalyā had only one son. But Sumitrā had two children. What is the inner meaning of her having two children? When King Daśaratha performed the Putrakāmeṣṭi sacrifice, he divided the pāyasa that the Yajña Puruṣa granted him equally among his three wives. Sumitrā bathed and washed her hair, took her bowl of pāyasa, and went up onto the terrace; while she was drying her hair in the sun, an eagle came and snatched that cup away. Sumitrā came down at once and told Kausalyā and Kaikeyī what had happened. The two of them were very pure of heart. “Sister! You need not grieve. The three of us are one. So let the three of us share the pāyasa that is left.” Saying this, Kaikeyī brought a cup, poured part of her pāyasa into it and gave it to Sumitrā. Kausalyā too poured part of her pāyasa into Sumitrā's cup. All three bowed to the deity of the sacrifice and took the pāyasa. When the nine months were full, Rāma was born to Kausalyā, Bharata to Kaikā, and Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna to Sumitrā.
But Sumitrā met with a difficulty. Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna were always crying; they would not drink milk, they would not sleep. She took the two of them to Vasiṣṭha: “Gurudeva! Be gracious to me and tell me why they cry,” she prayed. He looked with his yogic sight: “Mother! That day, when the eagle snatched away your bowl of pāyasa, Kausalyā and Kaikeyī took part of their own pāyasa and gave it to you, did they not?