This question is often asked in many interviews. In response, people usually mention the name of someone by whom they are influenced rather than truly inspired. The topic of a role model is very sensitive, and making someone a role model without understanding their life journey can prove to be a very costly mistake. It is not so important who your role model is; what matters more is why that person is your role model.
A person may need role models to learn many aspects of life, but a role model should not be chosen merely because one is attracted to someone’s personality. The qualities of a person are what truly matter when choosing a role model. In today’s time, instead of considering a person’s struggles, hard work, virtues, and conduct, people often choose their role models based only on their material success. Blindly following a sportsperson, a film actor or actress, or a wealthy businessperson without understanding their life values and daily conduct can lead a person toward destruction.
Without reflecting on the values that helped someone reach great heights in life, if we choose a role model based only on their career—even if their life story is filled with controversies and questionable principles—we may still achieve success by following them, but that success will not last long. Success gained through manipulation, money, punishment, or strategy (Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed) rarely lasts. Either the wealth does not remain for long, or the fame fades away quickly. Role models should not be chosen merely for building a career; they should be chosen to shape one’s character. A person from any field can be a role model for someone from another field. The important thing is to adopt the principles, hard work, and virtues of the role model in one’s own life.
The flow of time is changing. Today’s younger generation follows many personalities on social media, and there is nothing wrong with that. The mistake happens when young people choose the wrong path just to live the glamorous life they see others living. The incidents that have taken place in the Indian film industry in recent months are examples that support this fact. They show that in today’s time the number of people who can truly be called role models is decreasing. It is not necessary that a great person is always a suitable person to be a role model.
There is a famous English saying: “Go with the flow of time.” However, when it comes to choosing a role model, it seems we sometimes need to travel against the flow of time. It is not that there are no good people today who can be role models, but there is certainly a shortage of individuals with exceptional character and quality. Ten or twenty years ago such qualities were more visible in people, and a hundred or two hundred years ago they were even more common. So, is there someone who can be a role model for every person living on this earth?
To find the answer, we must travel back in time to the Treta Yuga. During that era, Mata Sita and Lord Rama, the incarnations of Lakshmi and Narayan, are the best role models for all of us. At every moment of their lives, they set the highest examples of human values without using their divine powers. In relationships such as father and son, mother and son, brotherhood, husband and wife, friendship, family life, social conduct, honor, duty, and even governance, Lord Rama and Mata Sita established principles that we can follow in our lives.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, the government broadcast the Ramayana, and we watched it as well. But how much did we truly connect the events of the Ramayana with our own lives and try to follow the character and values of the Lord? The Lord and Mata Sita were 100% perfect, yet we somehow ignore that perfection and run after people who represent only 20–25% of those values.
Today, truly good and virtuous individuals in different fields are very few—so few that they can almost be counted on one’s fingers. Ratan Tata, Bharat Ratna Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former President Late Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mary Kom, Rahul Dravid, M. S. Dhoni, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Group Captain Harkirat Singh (who brought the Rafale fighter jet to India), and the first Indian woman fighter pilot Avani Chaturvedi are examples of highly respectable and virtuous individuals whom ordinary people can consider as role models.
By following such people, we can shape our lives in a positive way. However, our ultimate aim should be 100% excellence. Only by following the path of the divine can this mortal life find true fulfillment. We have many choices before us—choices of the highest quality. But in the end, the choice is ours to make…
