Lucknow, Jan. 13 -- Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said Swami Vivekananda played a major role in introducing India's eternal culture and spiritual consciousness on the global stage and gave the nation and Indianness a new identity.

Addressing a gathering at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow on the occasion of National Youth Day, he hailed Swami Vivekanand on his birth anniversary, saying he awakened India's self-awareness, which had then been dormant. Yogi described his journey from Narendra to Swami Vivekananda as a journey from a seeker to a path breaker.

"Swami Vivekananda represented that India which, at that time, due to its dormant consciousness, had almost lost its self-awareness. If you want to understand what slave...