Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

Children living at Australia's oldest yoga ashram were starved, tortured and drugged, according the evidence presented at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Families who brought their children to the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in the 1970s and 1980s thought they were giving them a better life but the commission heard the youngsters were subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse.

A former child resident, given the pseudonym APK, told the commission she was forced to expose her genitals to ashram members and drugged with morphine for minor ailments.

History: Satyananda is Australia's oldest yoga ashram. Photo: Shane Arnold

She said she witnessed the torture of children as young as four after she moved to the ashram with her family when she was aged nine in 1978.

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Her older sister, given the pseudonym APL, told the commission that sexual activity was banned at the ashram and those who disobeyed were punished by its leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

Children went on what they called "f--- patrol" across the ashram's grounds at Mangrove Mountain on the central coast to see if any adults were being intimate.

"If Akhandananda found out that any of the swamis were having sex with each other he would publicly shame them and sometimes beat them," she said.

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Ashram children told to spy on adults having sex, royal commission hears

A former resident of Australia's oldest yoga ashram has received applause after delivering a passionate call for justice at the child sexual abuse royal commission in Sydney.

The commission has been looking at the handling of 11 complaints made against former spiritual leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati over the past 40 years, relating to abuse that happened in the 1970s and '80s.

The issue came to a head around Easter this year when the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in New South Wales sent an email to former members detailing a "healing ceremony" that formed part of its 40th anniversary commemorations.

One woman known as APK, who, along with her sister, endured years of physical and sexual abuse.

"It didn't resolve it for me, and I know it didn't resolve it for my family," she said.

She wrote to the organisation and said "to suggest healing has occurred when those whose lives were affected weren't even there is ridiculous".

"How nice for you that you feel healed. But your little fire ceremony does nothing for me or my family," she said.

"This is not something to be wrapped up in a pretty ribbon and healed by singing Kirtan around a fire pit ... frankly this fluff you have written is an insult to the people who truly suffered."

APK said the victims were still scarred by the abuse.

"It is also particularly insulting that you would spout off this rubbish about ego and embracing your darkness - all the same Samsara bulls**t that Swami Akhandananda spouted while f***ing little girls and stealing people's lives," she said.

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Child abuse royal commission: Mindset of NSW yoga retreat 'as dangerous as ever', witness tells hearing

A child abuse inquiry has heard sexual abuse was not uncommon in the Satyananda yoga movement.

A woman has told an enquiry she was sexually abused by Satyananda Sarswati - the man who founded the worldwide yoga movement with branches across the world including Australia.

In a statement to a royal commission examining child sexual abuse at a NSW Satyananda ashram, Bhakati Manning said she was abused by two senior swamis in ashrams in Australia and "by the spiritual founder of Satyananda yoga".

She said the abuse happened when she was 15 in Australia.

She was 17 when she travelled to the famous Munger ashram in India in 1976 to study with the respected yogi whom she had met in Australia.

Ms Manning said shortly after her arrival, he fondled her genitals and said something to the effect "this is our relationship, don't tell anyone".

He also taught her how to tie her dhoti - a traditional garment - so that it tucked between her legs.

He said something to the effect of "you have to protect what is mine from being seen", she said in her statement.

The world-renowned yoga master died in 2009.

Ms Manning, now aged 55, will continue her evidence on Thursday, the third day of a hearing where six witnesses have told of being abused.

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'Healing ceremony' insulted abuse victims