Question – "In previous blogs, like those of December 4, 2007, April 19, 2015 and June 15, 2015 you said manjaris have no husbands, but in his commentary on Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi, Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī writes -
paroḍhānāṁ śrī-rādhādīnāṁ dāsyaḥ kāścana śrī-vṛṣabhānv-ādibhir vivāha-kāle dattāḥ kanyakā eva kāścana tad-anyā rūpa-mañjary-ādayaḥ paroḍhā eva jñeyāḥ. bimbādhare kṣatam anāgata bhartṛkāyāḥ [vilāpa-kusumāñjali 1] iti śrī-dāsa-gosvāmy-ukteḥ.
“Some of the servants of Rādhā, who were given at the time of her marriage by Vṛṣabhānu, were not married, and others like Rūpa-mañjarī, were married. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī has said:
tvaṁ rūpa-mañjari sakhi prathitā pure'smin
puṁsaḥ parasya vadanaṁ na hi paśyasīti
bimbādhare kṣatam anāgata-bhartṛkāyā
yat te vyadhāyi kim u tac chuka-puṅgavena
“My dear friend Rūpa Manjari! In the township of Vraja you are well known for your chastity. You don't even look at the faces of other men! It is therefore surprising that your lips, that are as beautiful as red Bimba-fruits, have been bitten, although your husband is not at home. Has this maybe been done by the best of parrots?” (Vilāpa-kusumāñjali 1). He quotes exactly the same verse that you quote to prove the opposite.”
Advaitadās: “Look at the next sentence in his commentary - arvācīnānāṁ sādhaka-bhaktānāṁ tu bhāvo yathā-ruci yathā-sampradāyaṁ vā phaliṣyatīti boddhavyam – “It should be understood that the bhāva of present day sādhakas will bear results according to taste and sampradāya.” It is not that there is only one way or there is only one Rūpa Manjarī. There are as many Rūpa Manjarīs as there are liberated manjarīs to serve and follow her. Viśvanātha also writes in the same commentary: ‘Some were not married, some were married.” It is not that every single manjarī MUST be married. Śrīla Narottama dāsa similarly sang: kobe ei yāvat grāme āmār pāṇi grahaṇa hobe? (“When will I be married in Yāvat?”) – this is also optional.
Question – “Sceptics of siddha praṇālī say that sometimes disciples of the same Guru find they have all gotten the same manjarī-service.”
Advaitadās – “So, what is the problem? That Guru-manjarī may specialize in providing a certain service to Śmt. Rādhārāṇī’s lotus-feet. We should not forget that every sādhana-siddha (previously conditioned soul who reached perfection) has his/her own Rādhārāṇī to serve, there is no surplus of any service-offerings. Śrīla Sanātan Goswāmī writes in his Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta (2.5.52) –
yathā hi bhagavān ekaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇo bahu-mūrtibhiḥ
bahu-sthāneṣu varteta tathā tat-sevakā vayam
“Just as the one Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa exists in many forms and many places, so also do we, His servants.”
Those sceptics cannot conceive of the unlimited nature of the spiritual sky. Most manjarīs also have the same name. Even in the material world it is like that – how many Jacks and Johns are there not in America, how many Vladimirs and Irinas in Russia? They are still all different individuals! Again here, each Rati- or Guna-manjarī has her own Rādhā to serve. A rāgānugā guru may have 1000s of manjarī disciples, surely they will not all have different names and services. But they do each have their own Rādhā to serve. It can also happen that two manjarīs serve together, as we can see in verses 55 and 72 of Vilāp-kusumanjali for instance. These scenarios are not mutually exclusive. We have our limited concepts here that only one thing can be done at a time by one person. In the Bhāgavat (10.69) it is described how One Kṛṣṇa performed different pastimes with 16.108 queens in Dvārakā all at the same time – can you explain? So if one Guru gives the same manjarī-service to all of his disciples, then that is his/her specialty! This will only work with faith – a man was told he could walk across water by holding a closed tree-leaf in his hand, and it worked, until he opened the leaf and lost his faith. As soon as he lost his faith he drowned. Of course the spiritual world being unlimited does not mean that anything goes – rasābhāsa (perverted mellows) and viruddha siddhānta (bogus theories) should and cannot be carried along to that realm."
Question – I heard some manjarīs also have a black complexion?
Advaitadās – Sādhu Bābā gave one of my Guru-sisters a black complexion, yes. Mostly manjarīs have fair, golden complexions, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be orange, pink, green, or śyāma colored. Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī writes in Vṛndāvana Mahimāmṛta (3.107) - nānā-divya-vicitra-varṇa-tanubhir.......premāndhaiḥ parimaṇḍite’tilalite rādhā-sakhī-maṇḍalaiḥ” “Rādhā’s sakhīs (manjarīs are included) are decorated with blind love, are very delicate and have various divine, variegated or wonderful complexions.”
