the Pursuit of Happiness

The most famous phrase in the US Declaration of Independence crafted by Thomas Jefferson refers to the three "unalienable" rights -Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.

I came across this phrase for the first time in one of Osho Rajnish's articles -this guy was making fun of it, wondering how a constitution and a Government could 'offer' Happiness to its citizens as a right. His argument was that Happiness was something that had to come from within an individual; Government, politics & economy had nothing to do with it. Though I wasn't a fan of Rajnish, his statement highlighted a vast difference between the East and the West in their perception of 'happiness'. While the Eastern mindset, supposedly inclined more towards philosophical stuff, sees spiritual happiness as real 'happiness', the Western one, on the other hand, seems to refer to worldly pleasures.

Happened to watch this 2006 movie "the Pursuit of Happyness" (sic) recently, which Shibu had recommended. The DVD cover impressively showed a black man carrying a small boy and walking to/from his work. The black man in the story faces several set backs in his life -with his poor /no earnings in his salesman job, he is thrown out of his rental apartment, his wife leaves him, he sleeps in public bathrooms and shelter homes for the poor. All these troubles he survives single-handedly holding on to his 6 year old son. A simple and decent movie which did not get into any violence or racial discriminatory remarks etc. (I don't think a movie of this type would be appreciated in India -evidenced by the flop of Cheran's "thavamaayth thavamirunthu").

Apart from rekindling memories of the days I spent alone here with my son a decade ago, a reference to the phrase "pursuit of happiness" in this movie took my attention. The hero wonders why Thomas Jefferson added the words 'pursuit of' in front of 'Happiness' only (and not for 'Life' and 'Liberty'). He talks to himself: "Happiness perhaps is something one can only pursue, and can never actually have". A wonderful insight!