Why did Lord Jesus appreciate Mary's interest in knowledge more than Martha's service?

[sridatta]

[Shri Anil asked: Swami kindly enlighten us on the following incident in Bible: Once Jesus went to 2 sisters Martha and Mary’s house. Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what Jesus said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations like preparing food etc that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”]

Swami replied: This shows that knowledge is always better than service done without the knowledge received from the divine preacher. Such service without divine knowledge is called abhyāsa in the Gītā (Śreyohi jñānamabhyāsāt…). Service done to the divine preacher is also important and in fact, it alone yields practical fruit. But the service should be done after ascertaining that the preacher is divine. This can be done only after hearing the preacher. If the divine preaching is neglected, you cannot even analyze and identify whether the preacher is a Sadguru or not. Martha was attending to the various preparations, which constitute the practical service of the divine preacher. This should be appreciated more than the theoretical service of listening to the preacher’s divine discourse. But Martha was disturbing Mary so that Mary would not be benefited by the divine knowledge that Martha was missing because of her involvement in the preparations. This attitude of jealousy in Martha was detected by the divine preacher and that is why He spoke those words.