Gateways of birth and death: Those who have immediate access to the super-sensible truths concerning the life of the soul and its reincarnation know, through their unclouded perception, that so-called birth is only an incarnation of the individualized soul in the gross sphere. The unbroken continuity of the life of the reincarnating soul is punctuated by birth and death, both of which are comparable to gateways in the stream of life as it advances from one type of existence to another. Both are equally necessary in the greater life of the soul, and the interval between death and birth is as necessary as the interval between birth and death.
Demands of intuition: As is true of those who consider death to be the termination of individual existence, those who consider the birth of body to be its beginning are also confronted with a conflict between their false assumptions and the claims of rationalized intuition. From the standpoint of individual justice, the uneven distribution of good and bad in relation to material happiness or prosperity seems seriously to impugn the rationality and justification of the entire scheme of the universe. To see the virtuous at times suffering deeply and the vicious possessing the amenities of pleasure creates insurmountable difficulties for anyone who prefers to look upon life as being meant to fulfill an eternal and divine purpose.
-Discourses 7th Ed, p313