The Story Of a Role Model

A certain king had a son. Although in his late teens, the son looked very small and bony. His spindling legs, sunk chest, thready muscles and a poor stamina to match, indicated that he needed help. The royal doctor suggested nutritious food and tonics to vitalise the young prince, but nothing worked. He still remained weak and under-developed. The king became very worried and wanted a solution. One day, as good luck would have it, a wandering monk came to the king's palace. He was given a warm welcome and was accommodated in the royal guest house. The monk, endowed with a keen power of observation, soon learnt of the king's worry and offered to help the young prince. He asked the king to send for the royal sculptor. When the sculptor arrived, the monk asked him to carve out a statue of a fully grown up, well-built man. He wanted a full-size statue with perfectly formed muscles and biceps, well expressed in it. The sculptor followed the instructions and made the statue ready in a short time. 'Look here, young man,' the monk addressed the young prince, 'you must keep this statue in your room and look at it as often as you can.' Thus saying, the monk went away. The young prince, having placed the statue in his room, would look at the statue everyday. When he got up in the morning, he looked at the statue. As he walked in and out of the room, he looked at the statue. While sitting, studying, eating, resting, all through the day, his eyes fell on the statue. 'Can I too have a well formed and beautiful body as this?' the prince asked himself one day. He had developed a desire to be what he admired. Soon, he learnt how to do physical exercises, how to lift weights, flex his muscles and follow other related rules of body building. Within a few months, the skinny, bony, young man was transformed into a strong, well formed muscular figure. The statue had transformed a weakling into a strong man, just a statue.
Every field of life, has a statue. A sportsman has his statue, his favourite idol. A cinema goer, a scient- ist, a teacher, a politician, an accountant, a driver, even a thief, everyone has his own statue. The point is not whether you have a statue, but what statue you have. Does your 'statue' make you a complete human being? Does it take care of all your needs? That is how one must select one's role model. Once a role model is selected, one can't help becoming that. Swami Vivekananda said, 'Take up one idea. Make that idea your life--think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.' Right?