Penny "Swami Shuddhatmananda Giri" Hendrix

Swami Shuddhatmananda left her mortal body on April 7, 2025 at the Temple of Compassion, Burton, Texas ashram under hospice care after battling colon cancer. Born Penny Caroline Boekhoff on September 22, 1959 in Wellsburg, Iowa to Albert Boekhoff and Lorine Boekhoff she lived in the United States as well as Japan and Germany as her father served in the Army. She graduated at the age of 17 from High School In Wellsburg High School where she was All State in Basketball, Softball, Band and Track placing 10th in State in the half mile. The day after graduation she joined the marines and served as an E3 Lance Corporal playing clarinet in the Marine Band. After receiving an honorable discharge she attended Texas A & I University in Kingsville (now A&M University Kingsville) playing basketball and running track (800m/ 5K and high jump) graduating summa cum laude with a BBA in Electronic Data Processing. While in Texas, she met her future husband John Thomas Hendrix and was married on March 27, 1983. Penny and Tom shared 31 happy years together living in South Texas and the Belton, Texas areas where together they published poetry books with Tom writing the poems and Penny doing the artwork and publishing. Tom passed away in 2014 in Belton, Texas with Penny by his side. Penny's professional career as a Senior Programmer/ Analyst spanned decades working for many companies but ultimately led her to become a founder/ partner of Legisym in 2009 where she was instrumental as a software and database architect doing implementation, integration and marketing to create programs that are now in use globally. Penny served as the Bell County Libertarian party founder and chairman in 2001 and was the Libertarian Party Candidate for the State Representative in 2008. In 2003 Penny began her Kriya Yoga Meditation journey by being initiated into the Kriya Yoga practice which she so deeply loved. When Tom passed away in 2014, Penny opened another chapter of her life and began serving and started a search for the new ashram in Texas. In 2016 she found the property that became the Temple of Compassion inaugurated in July 2016 serving as a monastery and Kriya Yoga ashram open to all. She joined the monastic life as Sevayamayee and later Swami Shuddhatmananda Giri which means Bliss of a Pure Soul. Swamiji was a founding rock of our Texas ashram and served as a powerful, glorious force which resulted in this spiritual haven in nature with pastures, ponds and meditation halls lovingly built with devotion. She will be long remembered as the Head of the Divine Mother Cow Team where she taught others how to lovingly care for the cows that she herself helped birth and raise. Swamiji also made time to serve the community she adored as Secretary, Vice President, and lastly President of the Latium Wesley Greenvine Volunteer Fire Department. She was active in the Latium Community and will be greatly missed by all of her friends she held so dear as family. She wrote and published a book during her last months of life fulfilling her desire to bring together her love of Kriya Yoga and the Tao Te Ching. The book is called The Tao Te Ching in the Light of Kriya Yoga. Penny is predeceased by her parents and her sister Patti. She leaves behind her sister Diane Chisholm of Avinger, Texas and her brother Steve Keen of Iowa along with extended family in Iowa and her work family at Legisym she so deeply cherished. Rest in Peace Swamiji, your tireless service to others and all of God's creation has earned you the respect and admiration of all who knew you.