NEW JERSEY, U.S., August 3, 2012 (Financial Times): Congregants are expected to throng the Shree Swaminarayan temple in New Jersey this Sunday to ceremonially weigh their guru, Swami Purushottampriyadasji, in honor of his 70th birthday. But because of recent US financial reforms and the “war on terror,” members of the Hindu temple had to jump through an inordinate number of hoops to borrow 175lb of platinum, worth $3.9m, to place on an ornate scale as a counterbalance.
It will be the temple’s first such rite in 11 years and the sect’s first to use platinum to weigh a living guru since 1967. The ceremony aims to celebrate the guru’s works by placing him on a scale with holy items including coconuts, flowers and platinum. But preparations did not jell until a week ago, highlighting how much extra regulatory red tape has entered the bullion business since 2001.
Dilip Patel, a temple board member and New York trust lawyer, said that beginning in January he reached out to more than a dozen banks, metals dealers and refiners including Credit Suisse, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and ScotiaMocatta for a loan of bullion. “I literally went to all the top banks,” he said. “Almost all of them said, look, we can’t deal with you.” In the end Canada’s TD Bank agreed to lease the platinum in the form of 24 Impala South Africa bars and 400 one-ounce coins after temple members deposited $4.7m to meet a collateral requirement of 120 per cent of the value of the bullion.
In an interview translated from the Gujarati, Swami Purushottampriyadasji said that by being weighed against platinum, “our prayers are that we also become as valuable if not more valuable than the platinum and add value to our lives and those around us”.