In plain words
The supreme Puruṣa in this body is also called the witness, permitter, sustainer, experiencer, great Lord, and Paramātma.
Word for word
The witness, the consenter, the sustainer, the experiencer, the great Lord, and also called the supreme Self: in this body [is] the supreme puruṣa.
उपद्रष्टाऽनुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरःपरमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन् पुरुषः परः
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
तस्यैव पुनः साक्षात् निर्देशः क्रियते —
उपद्रष्टा समीपस्थः सन् द्रष्टा स्वयम् अव्यापृतः । यथा ऋत्विग्यजमानेषु यज्ञकर्मव्यापृतेषु तटस्थः अन्यः अव्यापृतः यज्ञविद्याकुशलः ऋत्विग्यजमानव्यापारगुणदोषाणाम् ईक्षिता, तद्वच्च कार्यकरणव्यापारेषु अव्यापृतः अन्यः तद्विलक्षणः तेषां कार्यकरणानां सव्यापाराणां सामीप्येन द्रष्टा उपद्रष्टा । अथवा, देहचक्षुर्मनोबुद्ध्यात्मानः द्रष्टारः, तेषां बाह्यः द्रष्टा देहः, ततः आरभ्य अन्तरतमश्च प्रत्यक् समीपे आत्मा द्रष्टा, यतः परः अन्तरतमः नास्ति द्रष्टा ; सः अतिशयसामीप्येन द्रष्टृत्वात् उपद्रष्टा स्यात् । यज्ञोपद्रष्टृवद्वा सर्वविषयीकरणात् उपद्रष्टा । अनुमन्ता च, अनुमोदनम् अनुमननं कुर्वत्सु तत्क्रियासु परितोषः, तत्कर्ता अनुमन्ता च । अथवा, अनुमन्ता, कार्यकरणप्रवृत्तिषु स्वयम् अप्रवृत्तोऽपि प्रवृत्त इव तदनुकूलः विभाव्यते, तेन अनुमन्ता । अथवा, प्रवृत्तान् स्वव्यापारेषु तत्साक्षिभूतः कदाचिदपि न निवारयति इति अनुमन्ता । भर्ता, भरणं नाम देहेन्द्रियमनोबुद्धीनां संहतानां चैतन्यात्मपारार्थ्येन निमित्तभूतेन चैतन्याभासानां यत् स्वरूपधारणम् , तत् चैतन्यात्मकृतमेव इति भर्ता आत्मा इति उच्यते । भोक्ता, अग्न्युष्णवत् नित्यचैतन्यस्वरूपेण बुद्धेः सुखदुःखमोहात्मकाः प्रत्ययाः सर्वविषयविषयाः चैतन्यात्मग्रस्ता इव जायमानाः विभक्ताः विभाव्यन्ते इति भोक्ता आत्मा उच्यते । महेश्वरः, सर्वात्मत्वात् स्वतन्त्रत्वाच्च महान् ईश्वरश्च इति महेश्वरः । परमात्मा, देहादीनां बुद्ध्यन्तानां प्रत्यगात्मत्वेन कल्पितानाम् अविद्यया परमः उपद्रष्टृत्वादिलक्षणः आत्मा इति परमात्मा । सः अतः ‘परमात्मा’ इत्यनेन शब्देन च अपि उक्तः कथितः श्रुतौ । क्व असौ ? अस्मिन् देहे पुरुषः परः अव्यक्तात् , ‘उत्तमः पुरुषस्त्वन्यः परमात्मेत्युदाहृतः’(भ. गी. १५ । १७) इति यः वक्ष्यमाणः‘क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि’(भ. गी. १३ । २) इति उपन्यस्तः व्याख्याय उपसंहृतश्च ॥ २२ ॥
In plain words
Now that same one is named again, this time straight out —
Let's take these names one at a time. The 'overseer' is simply someone standing close enough to see, but who never once joins in. Think of a knowledgeable bystander at a sacrifice — not a priest, not the sponsor, just someone who understands the ritual well enough to watch its merits and flaws without lifting a finger. That's exactly how puruṣa relates to the body and its doings: near enough to see everything, involved in none of it. Or think of it this way — body, eye, mind, and intellect are each, in turn, a kind of seer, each one a little more interior than the last, until you reach the Self, which is the innermost seer of all, because nothing lies more within than that. Being closer to itself than anything could ever be, it's the overseer in the deepest sense — or simply because it takes everything, without exception, as something it can witness. Then there's the 'approver' — the quiet satisfaction felt when others act, without ever being the one acting. Or think of it as the Self seeming to lean into the body's pursuits, favoring them, even though it never actually moves. Or simply: it stands witness to everything the body and senses do, and never once holds them back. Then the 'sustainer' — what actually keeps this whole assembly of body, senses, mind, and intellect held together and functioning isn't the assembly itself; a mere reflection of consciousness borrowed for its sake. The one holding it all together is consciousness itself, nothing else. Then the 'enjoyer' — just as heat is inseparable from fire, feelings of pleasure, pain, and confusion, reaching out toward every possible object, seem to catch light the instant consciousness touches them, and that's what lets them be told apart and known. Then the 'great Lord' — great because it is the very Self of everything, and Lord because it answers to nothing else. And finally the 'supreme Self' — because everything from the body up through the intellect gets mistaken, out of sheer ignorance, for the innermost Self, while the real one, the one actually marked by being witness and sustainer and enjoyer and lord, stands supreme above all of that borrowed identity. And scripture doesn't leave this unnamed — it calls him exactly this, the supreme Self. Where does he live? Right here, in this very body, as the person beyond even the unmanifest — as it will be said, 'there is another, higher person, called the supreme Self,' and as Kṛṣṇa himself will soon say, 'know Me too as the knower of the field.' That is how this whole teaching was first laid out, then explained, and finally brought full circle.
Close to the Sanskrit
Of that very one, again, directly, a pointing-out is made —
The overseer: being situated nearby, a seer, himself uninvolved. Just as, among priests and patrons engaged in the sacrificial rite, a bystander, another, uninvolved, skilled in the science of sacrifice, is an observer of the merits and faults of the priests' and patrons' activity — so too, in the activities of body-and-senses, uninvolved, another, distinct from them, of those body-senses together with their activity, by proximity a seer — [that is] the overseer. Or: body, eye, mind, intellect, and self are seers; among these, the outer seer is the body; beginning from that and going inward, the innermost, facing inward, near — the Self is the seer, since beyond it no further innermost seer exists; that one, by reason of being the seer with utmost proximity, would be the overseer. Or, like the overseer of a sacrifice, because it makes all things its object, it is the overseer. And the approver: satisfaction in those doing those actions is anumodana or anumanana; its agent is the approver. Or: the approver — in the activities of body-and-senses, though itself not engaged, it is imagined as if engaged, being favorable to them; by that it is the approver. Or: being witness to those engaged in their own activities, it never once restrains them — thus it is the approver. The sustainer: sustaining means — the very maintaining of the form of the assembled body-senses-mind-intellect, by reflected consciousness whose efficient cause is the Consciousness-Self's instrumentality — that is done entirely by the Consciousness-Self; thus the Self is called the sustainer. The enjoyer: like fire and heat, by reason of the ever-conscious nature of the Self, notions consisting of pleasure, pain, and delusion, having all objects as their objects, arising as if seized by the Consciousness-Self, are distinguished and made evident; thus the Self is called the enjoyer. The great Lord: because of being the Self of all, and because of independence, great and Lord — thus, the great Lord. The supreme Self: of body and the rest, ending with the intellect, falsely imagined by ignorance to have the character of the inner Self, the supreme Self characterized by being the overseer and so on — thus, the supreme Self. He, therefore, by this very word 'paramātmā' too, is spoken of, declared, in scripture. Where is he? In this body is the puruṣa beyond the unmanifest — 'the highest person is other, declared to be the supreme Self' (Bhagavad Gītā 15.17) — thus; and the verse yet to come, 'know Me too as the field-knower' (Bhagavad Gītā 13.2) — thus was he presented, explained, and summed up.