Eureka Springs. The place where you can watch a Black Indian cowboy sculpting Sri Yantras out of ceramic while learning about Christ consciousness. Niraj, whose name in Sanskrit means “born of water” or more poetically “lotus flower,” is both an artist and a farmer. He has lived at the Artist Colony since 2016.
He claims he has created the only 3D model of a Sri Yantra that has ever existed. He then challenges the reader of this article to prove him wrong. As he starts to spin this hanging model, his gaze wanders to a floating Merkaba, that contains an amethyst heart.
“Clay is the baby form of a crystal,” he said. “I’ve watched crystals forming in caves. When the mineral, which is masculine, emerges and unites with water, which is feminine, it becomes a crystalline and is no longer carbon based. That’s how crystals form. That happens to human beings also. We are made of elementals, physically speaking. That’s where Christ consciousness comes from. Everyone and everything tapping into its divine potential.
Niraj harvests his clay wild from local caves in and around Eureka Springs and uses no machines. He informs me, “The clay has spoken to me. The elementals in general have spoken to me and the Earth. And do you know what the clay said to me? I was sculpting a frog and I start hearing this telepathic communication and it said, ‘you ain’t the only one creating here’…
“ …Then the clay explained, ‘You ain’t no aggressor who came and took me and is using me just because you took me out of the cave.’
“It knew me when I arrived in that cave. It felt I had a predicament. It knew I wanted to create but I needed help. The clay said, ‘Shovel me into your bucket and take me home. I will help show you how to create.””
The key to a ceramic sculpture is building all the parts together. You cannot have hours of time between parts. It has to be worked consistently through during a process that can take up to a few days. When a break is taken, plastic must cover the clay so that it does not lose any moisture. After it is formed, it is glazed, then fired in a kiln. The clay goes in, the ceramic comes out.
Niraj specializes in ceramic animal statues and tobacco (since we live in Arkansas) pipes. He also makes incense stands, candleholders, cups, pots and bowls. He texturizes each piece and inscribes geometric patterns in them. He also makes his own incense, which is all sourced locally except the essential oils.
The ceramic animal statues require the utmost care to handle. Ceramic sculptures that contain personality require the handler of the art to understand and respect the fragility and uniqueness of all life, showing the highest level of care to preserve its existence. We are all clay statues ourselves. From dust we all came and to dust we all return. It is easier to destroy than create.
Niraj grew up in St Joe, Arkansas, (pop. 139) on his old pappy’s farm. “Eureka Springs was the big town to me and the first place I felt appreciated,” Niraj reflected.
Niraj walks barefoot from his studio up the hill to his garden. “Plants are my friends, and the earth,” he said. He started this garden behind the Artist Colony in 2020. “I used to go to the bars every night and sell my ceramics. Then I had no more interest in going out on the town anymore.”
Niraj sources his entire garden from the woods in which he lives, save for his heirloom seeds. These he admits, he orders online. He does not buy soil but composts in a pile almost as tall as he is.
His fence is made of bamboo and wire and is successful in keeping deer from jumping over but has not been successful in keeping rabbits and field mice from getting under. He has finally stopped armadillos from tilling and overturning, as well as the groundhogs from munching.
Another issue he has had to overcome is washouts due to its location at the base of a bluff. He lined rows between garden beds with dead tree trunks and rocks to stop the mudslides. He accomplished this by walking the hillside and filling up 5-gallon buckets full of rocks. “That was my gym, my workout. A lot of work in hot summer heat.”
Niraj said he once heard Earth’s voice in a thunder bolt. He says it was terrifying and beautiful at same time. “I was losing my natural state of harmony. I was watching my heart turning cold. Earth, herself, noticed my change in frequency and needed to have a word with me. My consciousness was transported to the core of the Earth, and a telepathic message was downloaded instantaneously. What happens in us happens in the earth as well. We must cause the earth and humanity to get an upgrade of higher frequency.”
Niraj claims we all have a soul song, a color that defines our heart’s musical harmony. Some people call it a mood, some an aura, and others a vibe. He claims “our friends in high places” use this soul song to monitor our well-being, and at the end of our life it will determine what happens with our divinity.
Niraj, his studio and his garden are all located on the backside of the Artist Colony on N. Main. His name hangs on the door.