Sisters Following Different Paths

Contrasting sisters Martha & Mary, who invited Jesus Christ into their home, are depicted in the Gospel of St.Luke.(10: 38-42). As Martha was working to provide  hospitality (Vita Activa) to Christ, Mary sat at His feet, listening to His words. On Martha complaining about Mary not helping her, Christ told her that Mary has chosen the better path (Vita Contemplativa). This scene is immortalised in Vermeer's "Christ with Martha & Mary", one of his very few paintings on a Biblical theme.

The same theme finds an echo in Dante's "Purgatario" Canto XXVII, where is written:

"Know whosoever may my name demand

That I am Leah, & go moving around

My beauteous hands to make a garland.

To please me in the mirror, here I deck me,

But never does my sister Rachel leave

Her looking glass, & sitteth all day long.

To see her beauteous eyes as eager is she,

As I am to adorn me with my hands,

Her, seeing, & me doing satisfies."

Here, Leah represents the active life, & Rachel, the contemplative life. In the tomb of Pope Julius II, there is a sculpture by Michelangelo, called "Vita Contemplativa." His biographer (& fellow painter) Vasari identifies it as representing Rachel.

Of course, much earlier, these approaches were known to Hinduism as Karma Yoga & Jnana Yoga.