Art of Breathing in Yoga

Hundreds of people gathered at Royal Albert's Palace yesterday to meet the Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

Ramdev is known for healing diseases through Pranayama, an aspect of yoga that deals with breathing.

He runs Patanjali Yogpeeth at Haridwar and has been invited to deliver a lecture at a two-day conference on poverty alleviation being conducted by a standing council of the United Nations. The conference is part of a 2000 U.N. initiative that pledged to eradicate poverty by 2015.

Ramdev spent part of yesterday responding to an invitation by Albert Jasani, owner of Royal Albert's Palace, to speak on "Yoga and Health" at the banquet hall.

Draped in a saffron outfit and wearing wooden sandals, with no coat to protect him from yesterday's chilly weather, Ramdev performed seven exercises of Pranayama in front of the audience of about 700.

"Smooth and long breathing can prevent disease," said P. Ramanathan of Franklin, a yoga teacher who came to see Ramdev and believes in his philosophy of breathing in yoga.