We have started from home but have not reached the destination. From the animal world, we have desperately developed in search of change. For us, it was difficult to live like animals; we evolved to become super-modern humans. We built families, created classes, and climbed higher in the food chain to find safety and comfort.
In that pursuit, we began to ignore the very protection that once nurtured us, the trees. While all other animals depend on nature and trees for their survival, we overexploited and destroyed them. Today, when we look back at where we have reached, we see both our great heights and the consequences that came along. Is this truly an achievement when it carries such heavy consequences?
For every biological being, the basic responsibility is to find a partner, and the other is to reproduce. But in human life, both seem to be missing. The real dharma of life has been lost.
A friend of mine owns a beagle, a breed of dog known for being highly emotional and attention-seeking. They are delicate creatures and cannot handle pressure. He once told me how difficult it was to care for one. He and his wife were often busy with work, leaving the dog alone for long hours. Gradually, they noticed that the dog had become quiet and unresponsive. One day, when they returned home, they found it lifeless, no disease, no injury, nothing, just gone. It had died of loneliness.
A similar story was shared by another acquaintance who owned two lovebirds. They lived together in a cage, inseparable. When one of them died suddenly, the other refused to eat or move, and within a few days, it too was gone. Love and companionship were its very breath.
When animals begin to show such emotional fragility, imagine the depth of emptiness within humans. Our growth has destroyed even the most basic needs of our existence.
In mythologies, there are stories of snakes that, after losing their partners, kill themselves by striking their heads against rocks. Whether real or not, the moral of such tales is clear. Humans are not different. We may appear civilized, but at our core, we remain biological beings.
From our basic needs to our commercial desires, we have monetized everything, even love. What once was a simple, sacred connection between two souls has now become a transaction. From “lover,” it has turned into “partner.” Mental connection, physical bond, religion, career, social status, everything has taken precedence over real emotional growth.
As a result, the scope of finding a true life partner has diminished. The real purpose of such a bond was always simple: to share happiness, to feel love, and to bring forth new life. It was never meant to be a showcase for society.
But today, we have layered this pure connection with endless conditions and expectations. And because of that, the true match no longer exists.
Perhaps this is the consequence of what we once did to other creatures, separating and caging them, taking away their freedom and partners. Today, we stand at the top of technological and material success, but we suffer from the same fate. No one truly has a partner, no one truly feels whole.
It is one of the biggest challenges we face today, yet we do not realize its gravity. In the race to conquer the world, we have failed to fulfil the most fundamental purpose of life, to love and to be loved. We built a world so advanced that it no longer needs love to survive, and that is precisely why it is collapsing within. We forgot that life was never meant to be about winning, but about belonging.
Perhaps evolution was never about becoming human, but about staying humane.