Instead of saying, ‘Give up kama, krodha (lust, anger )’ — in order to eliminate the acquired habits that divide us — Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi says, “Search within asking ‘Who am I?’. The new accretions will fall off by themselves.”
A doctor tells the patient, ‘Don't think of the monkey when you drink the medicine.’ Another doctor might say, ‘Think of the elephant when you drink the medicine. 'Is not the second doctor cleverer because his advice is more positive and easier to follow?
Sri Ramana Maharshi says, "Seek the Self. Don't worry about lust, anger, greed and other weaknesses. To end all evils, seek the Self which is happiness, beauty and goodness. The ego will vanish.' When thought turns towards the Self, thinking ceases and gives place to pure awareness. Action becomes a mode of being. Karma becomes akarma.
All the evils of personal and social life come to us because of this forgetfulness of the whole and the stupidity of mistaking the part for the whole, that is, due to the loss of child-like wholeness and integrity.
If one opens the window, the sunlight rushes in. No effort is needed to go and meet the sunlight or to bring it into the home. One should not sit in fear, trembling and keeping doors and windows shut. In the ‘search’ for the Self, there is no scope for effort, for there is no one to make the effort. In a moment the ego dies, the Self awakens.