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## Otherness Meditation
**• Yoga Shastra, Fourth Light, Verses 69-71. 395.**
**Wealth earned by others is enjoyed by many, but the one who earned it suffers alone in the depths of hell due to his own actions.** 69.
**Meaning:** The wealth earned by someone through great efforts and accumulation is enjoyed by others - relatives, family, servants, etc. But the one who earned that wealth suffers alone in the depths of hell due to his own bad deeds. 69.
**Explanation:** The meaning of the inner verses related to this is presented here: This soul, bound by karma, wanders alone in the vast forest of the world, which is engulfed by the fire of suffering. No relative, friend, or loved one can help or share in the journey. The question arises: Is this body, which experiences pleasure and pain, a helper? The answer is no; this body did not come with the soul from a previous life, nor will it go with it in the next life. How can it be a helper then? Your belief that dharma and adharma are the only helpers is also not true. Because there is no help from dharma or adharma in liberation. Therefore, the soul, performing good and bad deeds, wanders alone in the world; and experiences the fruits of those deeds accordingly. It also attains the supreme liberation alone. There is no connection or help from any relative there. Therefore, the soul experiences the suffering in the world and the happiness attained in liberation alone, without any help or share from anyone. Even a lone swimmer can cross the vast ocean quickly, but if his chest, arms, and legs are tied together, or if he carries any other possessions, he cannot cross. Therefore, only by being detached from wealth, body, etc. (from attachment), can the solitary, healthy soul cross the ocean of the world. By committing sins, the soul goes to hell alone; similarly, by performing virtuous deeds, it goes to heaven alone, and by destroying both sin and virtue, it attains liberation alone. Understanding this, one should meditate on the oneness of the soul for a long time to attain detachment. Thus ends the meditation on oneness. 69.
**Now we explain the nature of otherness meditation.** 396.
**Where the body is different from the soul, due to its difference in form, and wealth, relatives, and helpers are also different, then it is not wrong to say that there is otherness.** 70.
**Meaning:** Where the soul and body are different - the supported and the supporter, the formless and the formed, the conscious and the unconscious (inert), the eternal and the non-eternal; and the body does not go with the soul in the next life, while the soul remains even in the next life. From this, the difference - the dissimilarity - between the body and the soul is clearly evident. Then it is not wrong to say that wealth, relatives, parents, friends, servants, wife, children, etc., and so-called helpers are different (from the soul). 70.
**Meaning:** When the body is accepted as different from the soul, then what is the objection in considering material things (which are mostly related to the body) as different?
**The fruit of otherness meditation is only detachment, but there are other fruits as well; we will explain them.** 397.
**One who sees his soul as different from the body, wealth, relatives, and friends, how can he be terrified or afflicted by the nail of sorrow born from separation from the soul?** 71.
**Meaning:** How can one whose soul sees itself as different from the body, wealth, relatives, and friends be terrified or afflicted by the nail of sorrow born from separation from the soul? 71.
**Explanation:** The meaning of the inner verses used in this context is being presented: Otherness means difference. That difference is clearly evident between the soul and the body, wealth, relatives, etc. There is a doubt here: Material things can be known through the senses, while the soul is the subject of experience. How can there be oneness between them? Thus, when the difference between the soul and the body, etc., is clear, why does the soul feel pain when the body is struck? The solution is this: The person who does not have the understanding of the difference between the soul and the body, etc., who considers them both as one, will surely feel pain in the soul when the body is struck. But the one who has understood the difference between the body and the soul, etc., will not feel pain in the soul when the body is struck.