Devanagari
मृगतृष्णां यथा बाला मन्यन्त उदकाशयम् ।
एवं वैकारिकीं मायामयुक्ता वस्तु चक्षते ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
mṛga-tṛṣṇāṁ yathā bālā
manyanta udakāśayam
evaṁ vaikārikīṁ māyām
ayuktā vastu cakṣate
Synonyms
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 .
Translation
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.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
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.
KB 10.73.11
“… just like a foolish person who considers a mirage in the desert a reservoir of water. Foolish persons think that their material possessions will give them protection; engaged in sense gratification, they falsely accept this material world as a place of eternal enjoyment.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Furthermore the wealth of kingdom and other things is not really wealth. The unintelligent persons (ayukta) see the illusory (mayam) enjoyments arising from sense objects such as sound, form etc.(vaikariniam) as real. Just as a fool sees the light in a mirage to be water, so the kings see the distress arising in objects of enjoyment as happiness.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Unintelligent beings like deer consider a mirage to be water. The unintelligent person considers t sense objects, transformations of māyā, which are not really useful (vastu). The example of the deer and the mirage is used to explain the useless aspect of enjoying material objects (rather than to explain that matter is unreal).