Deva Premal

[SURYADEV]

An beautifully inspiring story from her Wiki page:

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.

Deva brought this journey with the Gayatri Mantra full circle in July, 2005, when she and Miten chanted the Gayatri for her father as he was dying: "We kept singing for what must have been over half an hour, when suddenly the monitor showed that he was about to leave. I continued to sing and the last sound he heard as he passed on was his beloved Gayatri Mantra. Finally we ended with the mantra Om and the circle was complete. He had welcomed me onto this planet with the Gayatri and I accompanied him out of this physical existence with it. What a blessing this was for me! It was the first time that I was present at a death, and to be at my father’s is a memory I will cherish all my life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_Premal