Haridas Viharidas Desai

He built the 12,000 steps up Mt Girnar for the pilgrims ( he collected funds of 3 lacs from public through lottery, he constructed roads that connected Jungadh to Girnar, temples of Narsinh Mehta and Damodar Kund ( all at his cost ), and construction of the railway line joining the capital of Junagadh to Veraval, the principal port and connecting them both to the railway system of India.London (Editorial)September 1895 remarked "By the death of Mr Haridas Viharidas, India has suffered a great and lamentable loss.Swami Vivekananda wrote in a letter dated 2 March 1896 from New York to Tatya Saheb, nephew of Haridasji "your uncle was a great soul and his whole life was given to do good to his country.Diwanji Saheb, I am the same frolicsome, mischievous but I assure you the innocent boy, you found me at Junagadh and my love for your noble self is the same or increased a hundredfold because I have had a mental comparison between yourself and the Diwans of dearly all the states in the Dakshin and the Lord be my witness how my tongue was fluent in your praise ( although I know that my power are quite inadequate to estimate your noble qualities) in every southern state".Again when Diwanji was in distress, Swamiji wrote to him from Bombay 22 May 1893 "Often and often we see that the very best of men are even troubled and visited with tribulations in this world, it may be inexplicable but it is also the experience of my life that the heart and core of every thing here is good, that whatever may be the surface of waves, deep down and underlying every thing there is an infinite basis of goodness and love and so long as we do not reach that basis we are troubled but once reached that zone of calmness, let winds howl and tempest rage, the house which is built upon the rock of ages cannot shake.