Nisargadatta Maharaj was brilliant, blunt, and bewildering. To some, he seemed like a poor teacher, leaving seekers frustrated and confused. To others, he was a poet-philosopher whose presence and words worked like medicine. With help from David Godman’s recollections and a closer look at Maurice Frydman’s translation of I Am That, we can see him more clearly—not as a traditional ācārya, but as one of Advaita’s most radical improvisers of truth.