BACK TO THE BASICS - REFLECTIONS ON MORAL DISCOURSE IN A CONTEMPORARYHINDU COMMUNITY

Instead of searching through Hindu sources for appropriate insights in to the questions related to ''playing God'' in biomedicine, the author seeks rather to understand why some Hindus at least are not inclined to ask such questions. Using examples from the Srivaisnava sect of sou th India, the author shows how Srivaisnava Hindus focus primarily on c haracter formation and the practice of the virtues encoded in the clas sical texts, thereafter leaving it to the individual to ''act as he or she will'' in the world outside the community - a world which is neut ral vis a vis religious values, neither governed by such values nor ab le to instigate the adjustment of religious values to fit changing tim es. The question then becomes, ''What do modern ethicists have to lear n from the moral discourse of the Srivaisnava community?''