The Atma is the Great Observer inside of you, is God inside of you.

Karma Yoga

Chapter 3, Verse 28

 

tattva-vittu mahābāho 

guṇa-karma-vibhāgayoḥ 

guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta 

iti matvā na sajjate

 

But one, O mighty-armed, who knows the true principles of the divisions of the gunas and of works, realises that it is the gunas which are acting and reacting on each other and is not caught in them by attachment.

 

One who has the truth inside through meditation, observe the interplay of the gunas, but doesn’t get attached to them. One who knows that these qualities are not the Self, becomes a true yogi. One becomes the Observer. Through your sadhana, when you introspect, you observe and you see that all these qualities are separate from you. All this action is just a play of the gunas, and the gunas are a play of Maya Prakriti. This Great Observer, the Atma, your true Self doesn’t get attached to it, and just observes it. What gets attached to it, is the mind! 

 

Let’s say, for example, that something bad happened in your day today, and it touched and saddened you deeply. Then, when you sit in the evening to meditate, of course, your heart will feel it, and when you close your eyes in your sadhana, you will see it. But does your soul sit and cry about it? It doesn’t! When you are looking at the inside, in whatever situation, the soul doesn’t sit and cry, because it is not affected by that. What are affected by that, are the body and mind, due to one’s attachment to the gunas. Here again Krishna reminds Arjuna, “Be centred in the Self! The Self is not attached, it just observes. It observes the play of the gunas, but it doesn’t take part in it. The Self knows that it is separate.” 

 

When you sit for meditation, you see it; in whatever situation you observe in your life, you will see that the Self is just observing. The Atma is just observing. The Atma is the Great Observer inside of you, is God inside of you. The Atma is not touched as your heart and your mind are touched.

Bhagavad Gita