Dozens of people are crammed into a small room, lying on the floor and breathing in rhythm to the loud whooshing sounds coming from the mouth of India's leading New Age guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The eager crowd is learning a stress-busting technique that the perpetually smiling Shankar -- dubbed by one Indian magazine as the "fastest-growing guru in the marketplace of happiness" - says he discovered meditating 26 years ago.

"Stress makes the vision narrow - it doesn?t allow you to think clearly or take the big decisions," Shankar, the founder of India's Art of Living movement, tells AFP in an interview.

"And, of course, you can?t be happy," he adds.

With India's economy booming, Shankar and other New Age gurus have become increasingly sought after as overworked Indians seek new ways to cope with the pressures created by their materialistic lifestyles.

"Many people who come to us suffer from stress overload. They live pressure cooker lives. They need a way to decompress," says Sanjiv Kakar, programme director for the movement, which offers courses tailor-made for executives.

The telegenic Shankar hopscotches around the world to help out stressed-out A-listers. He once spoke at the ultra-exclusive World Economic Forum in Davos, where political leaders rub shoulders with the elite of the business world.

He says his programme of short, medium and long breaths has been taught in 145 countries to at least 20 million people over the past quarter century.