The bearded 54-year old (not to be confused with sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, father of singer Norah Jones) is the founder of Bangalore-based Art of Living, an educational and humanitarian foundation. The foundation was established in 1982, and engages in 'stress-management and service initiatives'. It has worked in more than 150 countries and has one of the world's largest volunteer bases.

Volunteers at its Hong Kong branch say they don't advertise the foundation; local participation has grown by word of mouth.

'The Art of Living has been helping people in Hong Kong for a long time in a big way, and people are learning to de-stress themselves,' Shankar says. 'In many ways, Hong Kong has the best of the East and the West.'

Key to the teachings is a special breathing technique - sudarshan kriya ('proper vision' or 'purified action'), which purportedly rids the body of physical and emotional stresses and toxins .

'Breath is the link between body and mind,' says Shankar, or guruji, as he is known to his followers. 'The different patterns in the breath relate to the sensations in the body. Pain management can happen through breath.' Similarly, he says, mood swings, depression and addiction to alcohol, drugs and tobacco can all be addressed by 'attending to breath'. Shankar also appears cautiously optimistic about his foundation's ambitious endeavours in tackling the menace of terrorism.

'It's a big challenge - we have been working with people with violent backgrounds.

'First we started in the prison, then we went to hideouts and forests. And many have ... shunned the path of violence. But still, I feel, it's just a drop in the ocean. We have a lot to do.'

In his youth, Shankar was a disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was famously guru to the Beatles, but he is now an international figure in his own right. He was named the fifth most powerful man in India by Forbes magazine last year - which he says makes him feel he has 'more responsibility than before' - and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The guru encourages a more open-minded approach to religion to minimise the misery in the world. 'There are good things in every religion and every culture - we must be open to it; we must listen to it. That doesn't mean you will lose your own religion. If a Christian reads a book about the teachings of Buddha, it totally broadens his vision about life. Similarly, if a Muslim knows something about Shintoism or Taoism, it only enriches him.'

Timothy Wong Chung-ming, 39, who is in charge of the foundation's corporate courses in Hong Kong that focus on 'performance' and 'excellence', is a Christian. He says that the foundation has made him more 'in the present' at church.

Neelam Deswani, 31, another Hong Kong-based volunteer, is a Hindu. She finds the foundation's teachings in harmony with her religion, but also believes 'it's for everybody from all walks of life'.

Buddhist Cindy Gitelis, 40, came to Hong Kong from Taiwan with more than 30 other followers to listen to Shankar speak.

With the foundation's global growth, the prevalence of holistic approaches to health and the international success of books such as those by Eckhart Tolle, 'spiritual' approaches to life are becoming increasingly mainstream.

'There's a great interest in spiritual matters and people are much more open; they are less prejudiced. A shift is happening in the world,' Shankar says.

But by the same token, there are still people 'who are not happy with the interest that people have in spirituality'.

It's these people that the leader seems intent on reaching in order to achieve his main aim - to create 'a violence-free and stress-free world'. Such lofty ambitions help explain why he travels to more than 40 countries a year - with his next stop being the Canadian city of Vancouver.