mṛga-tṛṣṇām - a mirage; yathā - as; bālāḥ - men of childish intelligence; manyante - consider; udaka - of water; āśayam - a reservoir; evam - in the same way; vaikārikīm - subject to transformations; māyām - the material illusion; ayuktāḥ - those who lack discrimination; vastu - substance; cakṣate - see as.

Just as men of childish intelligence consider a mirage in the desert to be a pond of water, so those who are irrational look upon the illusory transformations of Māyā as substantial.