Knowing the self-

The first thing which comes to my mind is the self. We all belong to this self and persistently working for it, in order to make it happy. What is this self and why its realization is important? Let me elaborate it more, if I ask a simple question that who are we? Then what we think of our self as a body, object, soul, carbon element, etc. But let me clarify we are more than that and the thing is to know this correctly, which will surely kill our entire affliction. Actually, the problem is with us that we have been taught like that, we think those things to be ours which in reality does not belong to us. And unfortunately this is called to be an illusion.