German-born Deva Premal is a classically trained musician who grew up singing mantras as bedtime songs. Her mother plays viola da gamba and her father was an artist and a devotee of the spiritual path, including Zen and Yoga. He taught himself Sanskrit and Deva notes that “When my mother was pregnant with me, their welcome was to sing the Gayatri Mantra throughout the pregnancy.

“As I grew up we continued to chant the Gayatrii Mantra together regularly before sleep. I didn't really know what I was singing... and why. I just did it because I was told to. It wasn't until much later that I came to appreciate these precious times.”

As a teenager, she moved away from the confines of both her classical music training in voice, violin and piano, and the mantra practice, and began to explore on her own. At age 11, her search brought her to become a disciple of the enlightened mystic Osho, and later, she went to the ashram in India to begin studies in body work, including massage, shiatsu and cranio-sacral therapies.