Aurobindo about Advaita

[Samar Abbas]

On Mon, 14 Jun 1999, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:
> The smArtas who owe allegiance to sha.nkara are spread all over the
> country. They are definitely greater in number and percentage
> [ than the Madhvas and Ramnujites ].

The distribution is, to the best of my knowledge, 70 % Vaishnavas, 25 %
Shaivas and only 1-2 % Smartas, Jains, Buddhists etc. In Tamil Nadu there
is a saying, `First Shaiva, then Smarta, then Vaishnava', ie. Smartism is
considered merely an intermediary step for converts from Shaivism to
Vaishnavism. Aryan culture is essentially Vaishnava and not Smarta.
  I agree with your view that Smartism only gained importance recently,
far outstripping the relative importance of its small numbers. There is
already a strong Vaishnava backlash going on against this.
-- Samar