Urmila had a very compassionate heart. She always entertained noble thoughts. She did not feel sad even for a moment when her husband Lakshmana accompanied Rama to the forest. She was always contemplating on Shri Rama during his exile. Not only she, the wives of Bharata and Shatrughna (Mandavi and Shrutakirti were also engaged in constant contemplation of Shri Rama and praying for His return to Ayodhya. Thus, when they were in constant contemplation of Rama, their strength increased day by day. If you analyse the underlying meaning of every incident in Ramayana, all of them point to only one principle – the principle of unity; unity between the brothers, unity between their wives, etc. … During the entire period of 14 years of Rama’s exile to the forest, all the brothers and their wives were thinking and wishing for the well-being of Rama only, so were their mothers. Such was their nobility of their hearts. (SSS Vol.38, pp. 85-86)

When you go to a pilgrim centre and look at the form of the deity in the sanctum, you are conscious only of the form. But when you think of the material from which the idol has been made, you recognise only the stone and not the form. Today you are looking at the world in terms of the names and forms of the objects in it. Hence you see only the hills and dales, mansions and huts, forests and rivers, and so on. But when you try to look at the basis of all of them, you realise the One that underlies all of them. All trees are essentially wood. All mountains are made up of rock. The earth is made up of mud. The body is permeated by blood vessels. All these are different manifestations of the five elements (ether, air, water, fire and earth). These five elements find their unifying factor in the Atma. Once, therefore, the Atma concept is grasped, the nature of all other objects becomes intelligible. This principle of unity was the perennial message of the ancient sages. (SSS Vol.24)

All of us live on the same earth. The same sky is above all of us. We breathe the same air and drink the same water. Ignoring this underlying principle of unity man visualizes multiplicity, which is a big mistake. The Ramayana centers on the principle of unity in diversity. Today, since man has lost the ability to see unity in diversity, he is immersed in restlessness. What we need today is to see unity in diversity and the divinity behind this unity. (SSS Vol.32 Part I, p. 100)