In the presence of Costa Rica's Pacific coast, two spiritual musicians encountered something neither had fully anticipated: the urgent pull to create together. Deva Premal and Ajeet—voices that have moved thousands across decades of dharma work and kirtan—found themselves standing before Yemaya, the Yoruba goddess of the ocean, and recognized that a collaboration had to emerge.
When Voices Find Their Meeting Place
The moment was unplanned but felt inevitable. "We just really met for the first time, really," Deva Premal recounts, describing the encounter in Costa Rica. "And it was just so obvious that something needed to happen out of this beautiful meeting here." The synchronicity wasn't mystical accident—it was the kind of creative recognition that occurs when artists sensitive to intention recognize that their work belongs together.
What made the alignment clear was that Deva Premal and Miten had already begun work on Yemaya Asesu, a traditional Yoruba chant honoring the goddess of the ocean. The piece draws from African diasporic spiritual traditions, carrying centuries of devotion to Yemaya—mother of waters, keeper of the emotional depths, the feminine force that nourishes all life.
Lineage and Modern Expression: The Yoruba Chant
The chant itself—"Yemaya Assessu / Assessu Yemaya / Yemaya Olodo / Olodo Yemaya"—is a direct invocation from Yoruba tradition, a practice rooted in West African spirituality that traveled through the Americas via the diaspora and has become part of global devotional practice. These names for Yemaya reflect different aspects of her presence: warrior and healer, protector of children, dancer of the waves.
Where many contemporary spiritual musicians approach African diasporic practices as external material to be adopted, Deva Premal and Ajeet describe their engagement differently—not as cultural borrowing but as recognizing a living tradition that speaks to universal human need. The ocean, after all, belongs to no single tradition; it is the commons of the soul.
"For all of us, the best gift for me to be able to arrive to this paradise, the home of a beautiful friend, and get to finally really weave our voices," Ajeet explains. "It's such a precious experience, and we really hope it'll find its way into your lives, and bring a lot of healing as this moment with the ocean is bringing both of us."
The Healing Conversation with Water
The release of Yemaya (Reimagined) comes at a moment when the ocean itself feels like a teacher—and a patient. Climate crisis, pollution, the extraction of marine life—these realities frame any contemporary invocation of an ocean goddess. By reimagining the chant for now, the musicians aren't abandoning tradition but placing it in conversation with present urgency.
The piece is brief—a little over ninety seconds—which gives it the quality of a sonic prayer rather than a performance piece. Its shortness is its strength: compact enough to be held in daily practice, spacious enough to expand into meditation.
Where to go from here
Yemaya (Reimagined) is available on all streaming platforms via Hype. For those drawn to the chant, the invitation is simple: join in. Sing it by the water if you can. Sing it in your home. Let the names of the goddess travel through your voice and become a form of gratitude, a conversation with the ocean that sustains us all. Deva Premal and Miten continue their 2026 tour and Gayatri Gatherings, spaces where this kind of devotional work unfolds in real time, with community.
