Meaning of Medicine Buddha mantra 

Tadyatha Om Bekandze Bekandze Maha Bekandze Radza Samudgate Svaha. 

Tadyatha– means “like this”. 

Om– comprises the three pure sounds- AU and MA, which indicates our own body, speech and mind, altered into the vajra holy body, speech and mind. 

Bekandze Bekandze -“eliminating pain, eliminating pain”. What eradicates pain is medicine. The repetitive term eliminating pain is the truth of suffering and its cause. These two terms repeated is for beings with lower and middle capacity. 

Maha Bekandze – the term here means meant for higher beings responsible for abolishing the subtle defilements. 

So bekandze bekandze maha bekandze contains the whole route to enlightenment, the ultimate medicine. 

Radza– is king signifying the power to dominate. 

Samudgatey– morality; and 

Svaha– to establish the foundation in the heart, the blessing, the devotion from which the realization comes.

When we recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha, we collect unbelievable merit just as when we offer the seven-limb practice to Medicine Buddha. To recite the Medicine Buddha mantra brings inconceivable merit. Manjushri requested the eight tathagatas (Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the seven Medicine Buddhas) to reveal a special mantra that would make the prayers they (the eight tathagatas) made in the past (prayers to be able to actualize the happiness of sentient beings by attaining the path to enlightenment and pacifying various problems, to be able to see all the buddhas, and for all wishes to be quickly realized) to quickly come to pass, especially for those sentient beings born in the time of the five degenerations who have small merit and who are possessed and overwhelmed by various diseases and spirit harms. During that time, all the eight tathagatas, in one voice, taught the Medicine Buddha mantra. Therefore, if you recite the mantra every day, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will always pay attention to you, and they will guide you. Vajrapani, owner of the secrets, and the four guardians will always protect and guide you. All your negative karmas will be pacified, and you will never be born in the three lower realms. Even just hearing a recitation of the names of the eight tathagatas pacifies all diseases and spirit harms – even spirit harms that arise as a condition of disease – and all your wishes are fulfilled.

Motivation While Taking Medicine

Before taking the medicine, one must visualize and aspire as follows:

Firstly, if the medicine that has been properly formulated has to be blessed into nectar, one must visualize oneself as Medicine Buddha who is blue in color and his body radiates blue light. His right hand, in the mudra of granting sublime realizations, rests on his right knee and holds the stem of the Arura plant between thumb and first finger. His left hand is in the mudra of concentration and holds a lapis lazuli bowl filled with nectar. He is seated in the full vajra position and is wearing the three red-colored robes of a monk. He has all the signs and qualities of a buddha. The Medicine Buddha is surrounded by the buddhas and bodhisattvas, including the dharma protectors in all directions, and at the same time, the medicine is blessed as the nectar and the container of the medicine becomes the lapis lazuli bowl. The surrounding deities are uttering the words of auspiciousness and praise saying that you are the savior and the protector of beings who dispels the sicknesses of all kinds. 

Thereafter, the medicine is transformed as the nectar of the devas; the crown jewel of the subterranean spirits; and the elixir of the rishis, and pray that may this nectar of medicine cure even the deadliest of diseases in the patient.

May it also remove the obstacles created to life by 404 diseases, 80,000 kinds of obstructing forces; and 360 negative forces.

Then, recite the following mantra of medicine Buddha seven times to bless the medicine:

“Om Namo Bhagawate Bekhadze Guru Vaidurya Prabha Rajaya Tathagataya Arhatye Samyak Sambuddhaya Tadyatha Om Bekhadze Bekhadze Maha Bekhadze Bekhadze Rajaya Samugate Swaha”

After this, make offering of the nectar to the medicine vidadharas, and while receiving the nectar to oneself, imagine that all the diseases and obstacles are fully removed. While the medicine is offered to the patients, imagine and pray that the patient is released from the clutches of death. If one does accordingly as mentioned above, one would receive abundant blessings, auspiciousness, good fortune and accrue tremendous merit.