The works of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya

Ātmabodhaḥ

Verse 23

अज्ञानान्मानसोपाधेः कर्तृत्वादीनि चात्मनि ।कल्प्यन्तेऽम्बुगते चन्द्रे चलनादि यथाम्भसः । २२ ॥

In plain words

Not-knowing takes the mind — only ever a limiting overlay — and paints doership and all that comes with it onto the Self. Look at the moon lying in a pool: the water shivers, and the shiver gets read into the moon. The trembling was the water's all along.

Close to the Sanskrit

From ignorance, from the mental limiting adjunct, doership and the rest are imagined in the Self — just as the trembling and the rest, which belong to the water, are imagined in the moon that has gone into the water.