Three medical doctors, a marketing expert, and several young business executives knelt quietly on the bare floor in a sprawling Chelsea apartment, learning to be better doctors, businessmen, and marketers.

Their teacher was a philosopher who knew nothing about medicine or marketing (although he did, at one time, take a degree in business). But what he does know, or at least has studied, is Vedanta, an ancient Indian philosophy that is attracting a growing following in the New York area.

How growing?

“I started in January with three persons in New Jersey,” said the teacher, known only as Gautamji (his full name is Gautam Jain).”Next month, we have a meeting in Flushing for 500.”

Although the philosophy is thousands of years old, and originated in the “forests” of India, it is applicable to the New York business world, he said.

“It is a technique of dynamic living in the world,” Gautamji told the 20-odd people who drifted, shoeless, into the 2,000 square-foot apartment with a Modigliani nude print vying with ancient Indian scenes – and surfing paraphernalia tucked into the corners.

Vedanta, which means literally the highest knowledge, or the end of knowledge, is reflective with participants encouraged to look for essentials within themselves.

By seeking inner truth, Gautamji said, “you will be a far more productive and less stressed human being.”

And that means a better doctor or a more effective businessman, not necessarily one who abandons contacts with the world, according to the theory.

Dr. Rohit Arora of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx told The New York Sun shortly after Wednesday’s meeting that Vedanta “helps me distinguish between wants and needs, and helps me improve my quality of work and reduce stress.”

Sanjay Pingle, a marketing executive who was the host for the Wednesday session, said he has been involved with the philosophy for 10 years and has found that he is “more productive at work.”

In fact, Gautamji and the Vedanta Cultural Foundation (www.vedantausa.org)corporate-level courses specifically “aimed at reducing stress and increasing productivity.”

Gautamji, a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, returned to his native India shortly after picking up his degree and spent six years studying Vedanta. He lectured in India for five more years before moving to Edison, N.J., last December, to start introductory courses in the tristate area and in Washington. He is supported by a nonprofit foundation.

The attendees of the Chelsea sessions, according to Mr. Pingle, “are mostly young professionals and old hippies.”