nistula vraja kiśora maṇḍalī mauli-
maṇḍana harinmaṇīśvaram
viśva visphurita gokulollasan
navya yauvatāvataṁsa mālikām

        O Kṛṣṇa! You are the matchless crown-emerald of all adolescent boys of Vraja!
O Rādhe! You are the crowngarland of all the blissful freshly youthful girls of Gokula that are manifest in this world!

VRAJĀVATAṀSA (The Adornments of Vraja) ŚRĪ RĀDHĀ-MĀDHAVA 
    Makaranda Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

The fish-like heart of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī swims in the ocean of the Yugala’s sweetness.
One of the attributes of sweetness is that it grasps the heart and doesn’t allow it to experience anything else anymore.
The great poet Karṇapūra wrote in his Alaṅkāra Kaustubha (6.17):

rañjakatvaṁ hi mādhuryaṁ cetaso druti kāranam – “That which colors (pleases) the heart and makes it melt is called mādhurya.”

The sweetest thing that exists is the endless sweetness of Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s forms, pastimes and qualities, which awakens an unprecedented rasika intoxication within the heart of the loving devotee.
The mind always wants to be immersed in that stream of ecstasy.

During the Rāsa-dance Mādhava gave a hint to Śrī Rādhā to hide Herself in a cane-grove (Vetasī-kuñja) without the other gopīs noticing it, and Līlāśuka (Bilvamaṅgala), who saw this Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness at the time, said:

mādhurya-vāridhi madāmbu taraṅga bhaṅgī
śṛṅgāra saṅkulita śīta kiśora veśam
āmanda hāsa lalitānana candra bimbam
ānanda samplavam anuplavatāṁ mano me
(Śrī Kṛṣṇa Karnāmṛtam 14)

    “May my mind be immersed in a stream of bliss that inundates everything and everyone, that has innumerable waves that stream towards the ocean of sweetness,
which appears in an adolescent form that is endowed with amorous flavours, that is dressed in a cool way and whose lovely moon-like face slightly smiles.”

The beauty, attributes and love of Śrīdāma, Subala and other friends of Kṛṣṇa in Vraja are incomparible, for they are Kṛṣṇa’s eternal companions.
Their bodies are not transformations of the five material elements, they are transcendental.

In Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu Śrī Rūpa writes:
rūpa veśa guṇādyais tu samāḥ samyag yantritāḥ
viśrambha sambhṛtātmāno  vayasyās tasya kīrtitāḥ

    “Kṛṣṇa’s friends are free from the reverent feelings His servants have, they are the objects of His deep trust and they dress, act and look just like Him.”

Śrī Rūpa describes Subala’s form as follows:

tanuruci vijita hiraṇyaṁ hari dayitaṁ hāriṇaṁ harid vasanam
subalaṁ kuvalaya nayanaṁ nayana nandita bāndhavaṁ vande

    “I praise Hari’s dear friend Subala, whose complexion defeats gold, who is dressed in green garments and whose eyes shine like blue lotus flowers”.

In this way Śrī Rūpa describes different other friends of Kṛṣṇa also (in the Preyobhakti-laharī of Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu).

The activities of these friends are also naturally very sweet:

kecid eṣu sthirā jātyā mantrīvat tam upāsate
tam hāsayanti cāpalāḥ kecid vaihāsikopamāḥ
kecid ārjavasārena saralāḥ śīlayanti tam
vāmā vakrima cakreṇa kecid vismāyayanty amum
kecit pragalbhāḥ kurvanti vitaṇḍāmamunā samam
saumyāḥ sunṛtayā vācā dhanyā dhinvanti taṁ pare
evam vividhayā sarve prakṛtyā madhurā amī
pavitra maitrī vaicitrī cārutām upacinvate
(Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 3.3.53-56)

    “Some of them are calm and advise Kṛṣṇa like counselors, whereas some others are very naughty and always making Him laugh. Some are very innocent and please Kṛṣṇa with their simple behavior, whereas others astonish Him with their wayward behavior.
Some are very bold and quarrel with Kṛṣṇa, whereas others are very gentle and please Him with their sweet words. In this way all of them please Kṛṣṇa with their sweet moods of friendship.”

The friends of Kṛṣṇa are incomparable, and Kṛṣṇa Himself is the crowning emerald of all these sweet friends.

Śrī Rūpa describes this as follows:

mahendra-maṇi mañjula dyutir amanda kunda smitaḥ
sphurat puraṭa ketakī kusuma ramya paṭṭāmbaraḥ
srag ullasad uraḥ sthalaḥ kvaṇita veṇur atrāvrajan
vrajād aghaharo haraty ahaha naḥ sakhīnāṁ manaḥ

    “Aha! As He comes from Vraja Hari steals the minds of us friends with His complexion that is more beautiful than a sapphire, His white smile that shines like Kunda-flowers from between His lips, His lovely yellow dhotī that resembles a blooming golden Ketakī-flower, the garland of forest flowers that hangs on His chest and His flute-playing!2

This sapphire becomes even more beautiful, though, when it meets the golden ornament named Śrī Rādhā.

Śrīpāda Śuka Muni wonderfully describes that in Śrīmad Bhāgavata (10.33.7):

tatrāti-śuśubhe tābhir bhagavān devakī sutaḥ
madhye maṇīnāṁ haimānāṁ mahā marakato yathā

    “The Lord, the son of Devakī, looked even more beautiful as He was between the gopīs. He looked like a great emerald amongst ornaments of gold.”

Śrī Rūpa has relished this great flavor.

Śrī Rādhikā is the flower garland that decorates the crowns of the world-famous girls of Gokula, the Vrajasundarīs. Out of compassion for the worldly souls, She has descended from the topmost transcendental plane called Śrī Vrajadhāma, which is situated beyond the Vaikuṇṭha-planets. She has no actual contact with the material nature. The world is a transformation of the external illusory potency of the Lord, but the holy dhāma is a transformation of the Lord’s internal potency, the cit-śakti.
The holy dhāma is situated in the sandhinī śakti.

sarvopari śrī gokula vraja loka dhāma;
śrī goloka śvetadvīpa vṛndāvana nāma
sarvaga ananta vibhu Kṛṣṇa tanu sama;
uparyādho vyāpi āche nāhika niyama
brahmāṇḍe prakāśa tāṅra kṛṣṇera icchāya;
ekai svarūpa tāra nāhi dui kāya
(Caitanya Caritāmṛta)

    “Above all there is Śrī Gokula, the abode of Vraja loka, which is also known as Śrī Goloka, Śvetadvīpa and Vṛndāvana. This place is all-pervading and unlimited, just like Kṛṣṇa’s body, and extends upwards and downwards. By Kṛṣṇa’s wish it is manifest within the material universe in one form, not in two.”

Hence Vraja-dhāma is the greatest place of the world, and all the gopīs here are endowed with mahābhāva. But Śrī Rādhārāṇī is the embodiment of mahābhāva Herself.
Indeed, Her whole form consists of mahābhāva! All the other Vrajasundarīs (gopīs) are simply the phalanx-like expansions of Śrī Rādhā’s body.

bahu kāntā vinā nahe rasera ullāsa
līlāra sahāya lāgi bahut prakāśa
rādhā saha līlā rasa āsvādana kāraṇa
āra saba gopīgaṇa rasopakaraṇa, etc.
(C.C.)

“Without a multitude of consorts there can be no delight of rasa, therefore many of them are manifest to assist in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. The flavors are relished because Rādhā takes part in these pastimes. All the other gopīs are auxiliary ingredients to these flavors.”

santu bhrāmyad apāṅga bhaṅgi khuralī khelā bhuvaḥ subhruvaḥ
svasti syān madirekṣaṇe kṣaṇam api tvām antarā me kutaḥ
tārānāṁ nikurambakeṇa vṛtayā śliṣṭe’pi somābhayā
nākāśe vṛṣabhānujāṁ śriyam ṛte niṣpadyate svacchatā
(Lalita Mādhava)

    Śrī Kṛṣṇa told Śrī Rādhā: “O restless-eyed girl! Although there are many fair-browed girls in Vraja that show their feelings to Me with their twirling eyes, My mind cannot be pleased with them, just as the sky cannot be illuminated without the sunrays in the month of Jyaiṣṭha or Vṛṣa (May-June), even not by the moon and the stars!”

There are many loving devotees in Vraja, but after gauging the depth of Śrī Rādhā’s love Kṛṣṇa wanted to descend to earth to become Gaura to show the world the glories of Her love.

Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī said:
purandhrīnāṁ cūḍābharaṇa nava ratnaṁ vijayate – “All glories to the new jewel that decorates the crowns of the cowherd girls! She is manifest victoriously!”

śrī govinda vanamālī,        varaja kiśora mauli,
marakata maṇīndra svarūpa.
viśva khyāta vrajapurī,         yuvatī-gaṇera pyārī,
sīmanta mālikā aparūpa.

    “Śrī Govinda, the crown jewel of Vraja’s adolescent boys, is like the king of emeralds,
and Śrī Rādhikā is the wonderful flower garland on the crowns of the young girls of world-famous Vrajapurī.”