योगी युञ्जीत सततमात्मानं रहसि स्थितः।एकाकी यतचित्तात्मा निराशीरपरिग्रहः॥
yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṃ rahasi sthitaḥekākī yata-cittātmā nirāśīr aparigrahaḥ
Word by word
The verse says
The practitioner should join himself constantly, staying in a solitary place, alone, with mind and self restrained, expecting nothing, holding nothing.
In plain words
The practical instructions begin here.
Alone. Somewhere quiet. Expecting nothing, holding nothing.
And the first word is the demanding one: satatam — constantly.
Where you've felt this · in friendship
Your friend has gone walking on his own every Sunday for years. He is not lonely — he has more friends than you do. He has simply found out that some things only happen when there is nobody else there.
Going deeper
Solitude is being prescribed here, and it is worth separating from the thing it resembles.
Ekākī — alone, solitary. But the chapter opened by refusing the title of renouncer to the man who has left his duties, so this cannot mean withdrawal from life. It is an hour, not a destination.
That distinction runs through the whole book. The Gita keeps asking for periods of solitude inside an engaged life, which is a harder arrangement than either pure option.
Aparigraha — without holding, without possessions. The same word as 4.21, and it arrives here as a condition for sitting rather than a lifestyle. What you are still gripping will come into the room with you.
And satatam, constantly, is the word that makes this ordinary rather than heroic. Not intensely. Not rarely and enormously. Regularly, which is much duller and works better.