Radha's mahabhava vs her manjari's bliss -

Radha has most love for krishna. However her manjari's surpass Radha's own bliss by ~8 times.
Therefore I ask which is superior the most love for krishna or the most bliss?

The statement is from Rajaballabha Gosvami's Murali Vilasa as far as I remember and says that the manjaris enjoy 7x more bliss than Radha. Mahatmas in Vraja have told me, however, that this is a glorification of the manjaris. Makes sense. After all, who can have, or rather, be, a higher ecstasy than Radharani?



The Gosvamis and later acaryas have expressed a higher attraction to Radha's service than to Krishna's, so the answer to that is 'the most bliss', which is the bliss of manjari bhava.

And after all, are the manjaris anything but embodied aspects of Sri Radha Herself?

How can we know the difference if enlightened devotees like you are not around to help clarify? People may mistake this "glorification" as a "fact," and be misled in this way. Else how can we tell the difference between glorification and facts?

And why would anyone want to glorify the manjaris in such a way so that they appear superior to Radharani?

Which manjaris in particular does this apply to?

How many types of manjari are there?

Glorification transcends the boundaries of reason. There can be no limit to it, viz the superlatives in all shastras, like the Bhagavata, CC, Vrindavan Mahimamrita etc. They are also real facts, but only within the hearts of pure enlightened devotees. Persons who are still on the mundane plane must be careful not to implement them literally. For instance, in Vrindavan Mahimamrita it is said : "If anyone tells me to leave Vrindavan I will certainly kill him" (hanmyavasyam) - now of course that should not be implemented literally. It is a state of the heart and not a fact on the ground in the external world. Sorry, this is just a brief clarification, no intention to go off topic. ityalam.

There are basically two ways to go.

1. Hang around with the enlightened.

2. Become enlightened yourself.

If you can't instantly take the second route, follow the first and you'll eventually reach the second.

Nice replies from Advaitaji and Madhavaji, thank you. Radhe Radhe!

All.

There are essentially two kinds of manjaris, manjaris, namely the nitya-sakhis, who are the general flock of manjaris and the prana-sakhis, who are the chief among them. Essentially the nature of a manjari is one, nevertheless. She is forever and ever the maidservant of Radharani.

So since the statement that the manjari's bliss is ~7 times greater than Radha's bliss is simply a figurative or decorative statement then what is superior, gopi-bhava or manjari-bhava?

Superiority is subjective. However, in terms of depth of experience, bhavollasa-rati, or manjari-bhava, is greater on account of the manjaris' sharing the very moods of Sri Radha Herself, to which the other gopis have no access.

" in terms of depth of experience"

By this you mean the level of bliss? So manjari-bhava has a higher bliss than gopi-bhava (Not including Radha)?

"the very moods of Sri Radha Herself, to which the other gopis have no access"

Yes but the other gopi's have moods similar to Radha's because they are having loving affairs with Krishna too.

The other nayikas certainly also possess maha-bhava, but only Radha experiences the zenith of madanakhya-mahabhava, and the manjaris vicariously share the experience on account of their oneness of feeling with Her.

We take it that the experience of the manjaris is the deepest, deeper than that of the other gopis. However, this is not something one should go around debating, since each individual feels that his/her very own relationship is the most precious one.