It has been a custom for mundane astrologers to introduce Lord Rāma’s astrological horoscope to the student for analysis.

Lord Rāma is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and as such, He is neither inflicted nor debilitated by planetary conjunctions and aspects. When He descends, He is not under the material law of any karmic reaction as it is stated in Bhagavad-gītā (4.14) na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti — “There is no work that affects Me”. The Lord is never affected by the activities He performs in His different incarnations in this world.

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Millions of universes, each containing millions of planets, each with millions of living entities comprise this material world is but only one-fourth of the total display of the Lord’s energy. The remaining three-fourths is displayed in the spiritual world, Vaikuṇtha. How then can a few insignificant number of the material planets affect Him?

Factually speaking, the planets are indicators of Māyā’s (the Lord’s illusory energy’s) control over the conditioned souls. But Māyā is under Kṛṣṇa’s or Rāma’s control. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) that “This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti.”

Astrological science is known as sūrya siddhānta because the sun (sūrya) is considered the king of all planets in the universe. The ancient Vedic text Brahma-saṁhitā has this to say about the sun:

yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ

rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ

yasyājñayā bhrāmati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.”

Maharaja Priyavrata Illuminates the Planetary Systems

In another place in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (3.25.42), Lord Kapila, an incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa says, sūryas tapati mad-bhayāt — “The sun shines out of fear of Me”. So the sun along with all the other planets are under the complete control of the Supreme Lord Rāma.

Therefore, it is a Himālayan blunder on the part of the mundane astrologers who for so long have been analyzing the Lord’s astrological chart from a mundane point of view. It is audaciously presumptuous to bring the Supreme Lord under astrological review and purview which tantamount to utterly offensive behavior as it undermines the supreme position of Lord.

In the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9) Lord Kṛṣṇa says, “My appearance and activities are transcendental,” not mundane. Lord Kṛṣṇa further confirms in Bhagavad-gītā (7.26), “O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.”

The Supreme Lord’s another name is Adhokṣaja, which means that He cannot be understood by any amount of material learning. Astrology is subtle material science but not spiritual science which is superior. To understand the Supreme Lord, there is only one way — bhaktyā mām abhijānāti — “One can know Me as I am only through devotional service.” [Lord Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā 18.55] There is no other way.

The great propounders of astrological science like Parāśara Muni and Bhṛgu Muni were all exalted devotees of Lord Viṣṇu. Astrology was only a secondary consideration. It is further mentioned in the Vedic literatures like Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that the Lord is all-auspicious and that when He appears, all the influential planets automatically align themselves in the most auspicious formation for the purpose of celebrating the Lord’s glorious descent into the material world which is only out of His causeless mercy upon the suffering conditioned souls.

It takes one as exalted as Garga Muni, a great devotee of the Lord, a pure Vaiṣṇava, the exalted son of Bharadvāja Ṛṣi and the family priest of the glorious Nanda Mahārāja (the foster father of Kṛṣṇa) to calculate the astrological chart of Lord Kṛṣṇa (or Lord Rāma for that matter) at the time of His birth and he immediately realized that here was the Supreme Personality of Godhead!