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