A mantra (Devanāgarī: मन्त्र; Tib.སྔགས་ ngak; Wyl. sngags) is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation" (cf. spiritual transformation). Its use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra.

Mantras (Devanāgarī मन्त्र) originated in the Vedic tradition of India, becoming an essential part of the Hindu tradition and a customary practice within Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.

In the context of the Vedas, the term mantra refers to the entire portion which contains the texts called Rig, Yajur or Sama, that is, the metrical part as opposed to the prose Brahmana commentary. With the transition from ritualistic Vedic traditions to mystical and egalitarian Hindu schools of Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra and Bhakti, the orthodox attitude of the elite nature of mantra knowledge gave way to spiritual interpretations of mantras as a translation of the human will or desire into a form of action.

For the authors of the Hindu scriptures of the Upanishads, the syllable Om, itself constituting a mantra, represents Brahman, the godhead, as well as the whole of creation. Kūkai suggests that all sounds are the voice of the Dharmakaya Buddha — i.e. as in Hindu Upanishadic and Yogic thought, these sounds are manifestations of ultimate reality, in the sense of sound symbolism postulating that the vocal sounds of the mantra have inherent meaning independent of the understanding of the person uttering them.

Deva Premal (born in 1970 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music which puts ancient Sanskrit mantras into atmospheric contemporary settings.

Deva met her partner in life and music, Miten, at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India in 1990, and they have been touring together since 1992, offering concerts and chant workshops worldwide.

Best known for her top-selling chant CDs, Deva is a classically trained musician who grew up singing mantras in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality. Her albums have topped the New Age charts throughout the world since her first release, The Essence, featuring the Gayatri Mantra. Deva & Miten's record company, Prabhu Music, reports sales of over 900,000 albums.

Deva began her journey with mantra in her mother's womb, as her father chanted the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most sacred mantras of Hinduism, to her daily, and it continued to be her bedtime lullaby after she was born. Many years later, she heard a friend singing the Gayatri and was inspired to put together an album featuring it. She and Miten recorded The Essence in her mother's apartment in Germany, the same one in which she was born and where her parents had sung the Gayatri Mantra to her years before.