How to conquer passions?

Sri Ramana Maharshi

If the passions are something external to us we can take arms and ammunition and conquer them. They all come from within us. If, by looking into the source whence they issue, we see that they don't come out of us, we shall conquer them. It is the world and the objects in it that arouse our passions. But the world and these objects are only created by our mind. They don't exist during our sleep.

.......

On one occasion, he (Maharshi) has told me that he scratched his skin, where there was eczema was once, as we scratch during sleep. And once when I was concerned over some physical pain of his, he told he feels that pain, 'கனாக்கண்டாற்போல்' (means it was a passing and faint experience like that in a dream). These are clues to the sort of life Bhagavan leads in our midst, seeming to act and move and feel as we do, but really living in a world of his own where the things we experience don't exist.