Meditation is a way to free your mind, to relax you, especially when you feel extremely overwhelmed and stressed, but for buddhists and hindu's, meditation is a religious experience.
For the Hindu's, the most well-known mantra is The Gayatri. This mantra is said to gain the power of illumination, purifying, and healing.
For the Buddhists, there are quite a few mantra's that pop out, but one that caught my eye is the Om Mani Padme Hum. This mantra is one that is sang by a majority of the Buddhists.
I believe meditation and the mantra's spoken out loud are similar to music and poetry cafe's that we have all around the U.S. People go there to listen, relax, and speak their "mantra's".