From Judgment to Joy: Beginning with Shaktipat

From Judgment to Joy:
Beginning with Shaktipat
by Kambra McConnel

Sat Chit Ananda Guru Ki Jay!

“There is almost nothing that will sabotage Grace faster than fault-finding.” – Kedarji

Thanks to the Grace of authentic Shaktipat and Kedarji’s true spiritual leadership over many years, I am experiencing deeper levels of awareness of how quickly fault-finding sabotages Grace.

With ongoing contemplation, I am directly experiencing how engaging in fault-finding restricts or blocks both my capacity to imbibe my Guru’s Grace, and the degree to which I put forth the Grace of my own Self Effort – and how letting go of the tendency to fault-find instantly transforms my inner state to great Joy.

The Miracle of Shaktipat

At our Miracle Intensive in August 2026, while sitting for meditation after receiving Kedarji’s Shaktipat Blessing, inwardly, I heard Kedarji utter an important instruction for me: “Don’t waste your enthusiasm on worry, fear, judgment and impatience.”

While I had inwardly heard similar instruction from Kedarji in the past, specifically “Don’t waste your enthusiasm on worry and fear,” this time, I observed that “judgment and impatience” had been added to the list.

Why?

This led me to further contemplate how, in the same meditation, I had also inwardly seen the utterance “From Judgment to Joy.”

From Fault-Finding to Fact-Finding

In our approach, Kedarji instructs us to turn fault-finding into fact-finding within ourselves.

In “Vibration of Divine Consciousness,” in the chapter titled “Grace is All There Is,” Kedarji utters, “Where or how does this fault-finding begin? Sometimes, it is self-directed. At times, you may be too hard on yourself, judging yourself for your weaknesses and mistakes in such a way that you beat yourself up – maybe you guilt yourself on a regular basis. At other times, fault-finding is learned by example, by the company we keep. But it is always based on superimposition or the way you project your limited life experience into Consciousness, from the false notion that you are just a person.”

He utters that, “As one of the great poet saints of our lineage has said, God is below you, above you, to the right of you, to the left of you, in front of you and behind you. There is no place where the Self is not. Therefore, everything and everyone is a reflection of that Divinity. If we hold this understanding, then we come to experience the reflection of our very own selves in others. In this way, we can learn something useful, even from a blade of grass!”

Kedarji goes on to say, “A great being has said that your shortcomings and weaknesses are obstacles. Let them be criticized, but don’t criticize others. An ignorant person can indulge his or her own limiting cravings by maligning others. It’s so easy to blame others in order to justify a position that you have attached yourself to, but it is a mistake to do so. This is what happens in fault-finding. Indulge in virtue by not finding fault in others. A pure heart sees everyone as pure. So, in our approach, we are taught to turn fault-finding into fact-finding within ourselves.”

Blessed with Joy

When I contemplate these wisdom utterances in connection with my Shaktipat meditations, I experience an expanding Spiritual Witnessing Awareness of how I can choose to use the tendency of fault-finding as a reminder to fact-find…to allow an inwardly contracted state of judgment to become an inner state of Joy, which is my True Nature, and the True Nature of everyone, everything, everywhere – as God…as the same Supreme Self.

For example, a few weeks after our Miracle Intensive, after I had finished grocery shopping, as I rolled my full grocery cart up to my car, I observed that a gentleman was trying to pull his car into a spot next to mine, and it appeared that he was about to hit my car.

Inwardly, I instantly chose to fault-find, which quickly contracted my spiritual witnessing awareness of where the energy of my mind was wandering. This led me to experience a Poor Mental State and a lack of Emotional Resilience.

Triggered by worry and fear, I rushed up to the trunk of my car to put my groceries in it, in a subtle effort to also show the gentleman that I was there. By my presence, I attempted to send a message for him to not hit my car.

I entertained thoughts such as, “He’d better not hit my car. It is new!” “Is he really looking at where his car is going?” “Is he paying attention?” “I’d better make sure he sees me standing here, so that if he hits my car, I can be ready to document that it is his fault.” And as I allowed these useless notions to fuel more worry and fear, I restricted my own capacity to observe what was actually taking place.

Ultimately, the gentleman figured out how to park in a way that did not impact my car, and I saw him get out of his own car. In that short period of time, I had unloaded my cart, packed my groceries into my trunk, and I had started to push my empty cart over to the area of the parking lot where I needed to return it.

Then, by my Guru’s Grace, I was shown how my choice to engage in fault-finding had led me to contract into judgment… and how choosing to fact-find, in an instant, always leads me to experience my True Nature – and everyone’s True Nature – of Joy, instead.

Because as I approached the area where I needed to return my shopping cart, the gentleman simultaneously approached me on his way into the grocery store. He appeared to enthusiastically bounce over to me – buoyantly, joyfully – and he said, “Here, let me take that cart for you! And YOU have a blessed day!”

Instantly, I felt awash with Joy, and I experienced an Improved Mental State and Emotional Resilience. The Mirror of my Guru was up, by the Play of the Shakti!

My spiritual witnessing awareness instantly expanded as this gentleman reflected back for me that just like Kedarji and the Sages of our Lineage consistently tell us: everyone and everything, everywhere, is God – the same Indescribable Joy of the Supreme Self.

This experience further reminded me that even in what may appear to be small ways, it is for my benefit to see everyone as God and approach all activity as selfless service – to offer all activity as a blessed sacrament to God – instead of staking a claim to defend, protect, seek praise, or assign blame. Because as Kedarji utters, after the receipt of Shaktipat, nothing exists that is outside of my Sadhana.

So there is no need for me to engage in fault-finding or judgment. All I need is to choose to go inside and stay there with my heightened spiritual witnessing awareness, without allowing it to contract, by engaging in my daily spiritual practice that Kedarji instructs.

This is how judgment transforms to Joy.

The Power of Spiritual Practice

To share another recent example, one evening, I did not feel that I had “enough time” to make dinner instead of ordering take-out.

Gratefully, with heightened spiritual witnessing awareness, I observed how quickly I slipped into fault-finding, when I judged myself for working too slowly and “falling behind” with selfless service that day.

So, by the Grace of my Guru’s instruction to turn fault-finding into fact-finding – for judgment to transform to Joy – I nipped the useless tendencies of fault-finding and judgment in the bud.

I redoubled my Self Effort – my Grace – and I performed a three-step Dharana that Kedarji instructs: take three deep breaths, inwardly recall the form of my Guru, and repeat a mantra that Kedarji gave to me. And then, I felt much better equipped to take the steps necessary to cook for myself.

As I cooked, while I chopped an onion, inwardly, I performed my daily spiritual practice of mantra repetition (Japa).

And I was so immersed in the mantra that when my big knife slipped…and landed hard on my thumb…my only thoughts were: “Thank God and Thank You Kedarji for my Mantra! I am so grateful that I was repeating my Mantra when this happened!” Because the knife landed squarely on my thumbnail, rather than on the flesh of my thumb.

So while my thumbnail got a big groove across it, gratefully, the flesh of my thumb had been spared a deep cut, which, if it had required stitches, would have ensured that I “did not have enough mundane time” to either make dinner or to complete my selfless service that day.

And I felt a heightened spiritual witnessing awareness that my thumbnail is just like the power of Grace: the union of my Guru’s Grace with instruction and the Grace of my Self Effort with spiritual practice protected me from a situation that could have resulted in harm to my physical body, and could have appeared to interfere with my selfless service and my Sadhana.

So with Great Joy, I give thanks – for Judgment to Joy!

What Grace!

Om Guru Om

Kambra McConnel is the Treasurer of The Bhakta School of Transformation. She sits on our Board of Directors and also volunteers as a certified staff teacher and program leader for Nityananda Shaktipat Yoga.