After the Lord disappears from Brahma’s sight, Brahma sees that the lotus has spread throughout the universe. Now understanding his purpose, Brahma begins the work of creation as the delegated and empowered representative of the Supreme Lord. Meditating on the Lord in his heart, he forms the planetary systems from the petals of the lotus.
Next he begins to reproduce population from the different parts of his body, including his mind, feelings, and shadow, by mystic powers. He does not create the souls, who are eternal spiritual sparks from the spiritual form of the Lord, any more than he created the material elements. He merely gives them bodies formed from those material elements according to their various levels of consciousness at the time.
