For Duncan

Okay, what if the wheel of samsara actually turns counter to our perception of time? The Hindu concept of reincarnation then leads to each successive life being further and further back in time. Each previous generation being smaller than the current one, we see more and more souls attaining nirvana as we proceed back in time.

Perhaps then animal souls become karmicly more pure than human souls? The ever increasing number of people in the world, according to our perception of time as flowing into the future, gives an indication of the great number of souls that began with Brahman. The number of extinctions within the animal world follows then, and by extension, eventually all animal species must die out and only humans will be left on or in the world. Humans being the basic form of soul from which the cycle started.

Take that! :)