Introduction

This course explores the possibility of making a man happy and a society perfect. The social tendencies found in our chaotic world of today are daunting but every one of us looks for happiness and justice. There are several problems in achieving the state in which individual is happy and society is perfect. Theoretically, happiness is a hybrid concept combining three factors: a factor of affect, long term conditions of life, and social harmony. Happiness can be destroyed if there is unhappiness with respect to any of these factors. The three severe problems limiting human happiness are: (a) separation (though not independence) of laws governing individual happiness and perfectibility of society; (b) a conflict between individual choice and externalities (you can decide about yourself but you cannot have any control over what others will decide though your happiness depends a lot on others’ decisions too); and (c) variation in ideas of perfectibility arising from differences in the social contexts of ideas. This implies that one has to prioritize whether to work for his own happiness or to work for perfectibility of society. Of course, many spiritual frameworks suggest that individual derives maximum happiness from working for society, including the cause of social justice, protection of nature, or the larger cause of God. Jeevan Vidya, suggests that there is no conflict between working for individual happiness and working for society. A person with a right understanding is a happy person. He is also a person who contributes to harmony at social as well as natural levels.