Spiritual growth does not mean deepening your knowledge of a particular belief system. It means becoming wiser and more compassionate. It means setting the intentions for harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for life, and discovering in the intimacy of your own experience the obstacles to these objectives. You can be Hindu, and your spiritual partner can be Muslim. You must both be more interested in each other than in convincing each other that you are correct in what you believe.
Authentic power is the alignment of the personality with the soul.
It is exercising your ability to create consciously. It is also recognizing that you create continually moment by moment. The creation of authentic power requires responsible choice. A responsible choice is a choice that creates consequences for which the chooser is willing to accept responsibility. There is no place in this picture for the orientation of a victim.