When Brahma woke up at the beginning of the current day, there was just darkness. Everything had to be re-created from the material elements stored in the lotus flower from which he was born. This process continued all the way to the creation of Svayabhuva Manu and his wife Satarupa.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described that Svayabhuva Manu had 5 children: three daughters and two sons. The first daughter, Ākūti, was given in marriage to the sage Ruci, the middle daughter, Devahūti, to the sage Kardama, and the youngest, Prasūti, to Prajapati Dakṣa. From the two sons, the first, Priyavrata, became a renunciant, while the second, Uttanapada, became the father of Dhruva Maharaja and his half-brother Uttama.
By studying this description, one could question from where the rest of humanity came from, as well as all the animals, plants, and other beings who populated the different planets. Early in the current day of Brahma, when Kardama Muni was meditating (before accepting Devahuti, the daughter of Manu as his wife), the earth was not a desert. On the Srimad Bhagavatam (3.21.40-44) it is described that his hermitage was a very beautiful place, surrounded by all kinds of plants and animals.
“The shore of the lake was surrounded by clusters of pious trees and creepers, rich in fruits and flowers of all seasons, that afforded shelter to pious animals and birds, which uttered various cries. It was adorned by the beauty of groves of forest trees. The area resounded with the notes of overjoyed birds. Intoxicated bees wandered there, intoxicated peacocks proudly danced, and merry cuckoos called one another. Lake Bindu-sarovara was adorned by flowering trees such as kadamba, campaka, aśoka, karañja, bakula, āsana, kunda, mandāra, kuṭaja and young mango trees. The air was filled with the pleasing notes of kāraṇḍava ducks, plavas, swans, ospreys, waterfowl, cranes, cakravākas and cakoras. Its shores abounded with deer, boars, porcupines, gavayas, elephants, baboons, lions, monkeys, mongooses and musk deer.”
Similarly, when Uttanapada, the son of Manu, became the king, even before begeting his children, there were already people living on the planet. So, from where did they come?
The point is that the Srimad Bhagavatam (as well as the other Puranas) don’t speak much about the direct creation of human beings, just as they don’t speak much about the creation of lower animals and other species. Although it may sound interesting to us, this is just not considered a very important topic by the sages who transmitted the scriptures. In the Tattva Sandarbha, Srila Jiva Goswami mentions that all 18 Puranas were compiled by Srila Vyasadeva from a much larger book (of one billion verses!) that is studied in the higher planets by the demigods. Understanding that it would be impossible for us to study such a large book, Vyasadeva compiled the 18 Puranas taking just the most relevant parts to different classes of people. In this way, from the original one billion verses, we have access to 18,000 verses in the Srimad Bhagavatam, and a total of 400,000 if we add the verses from all other Puranas.
It’s understood that human beings, animals, and plants have existed on different planets since the beginning of the universe, but the scriptures we have access to on our planet don’t speak so much about them, focussing instead on describing the activities of great personalities, who transmitted important spiritual knowledge. However, just because something is not comprehensibly described in the scriptures, doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen.
The creation of different species of life happens repeatedly thanks to Prajapatis like Daksa, who in cooperation with their wives repeatedly populate the universe. In the sixth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, chapter 6, there is a description of how the sixty daughters of Daksa gave birth to most of the population of the universe, from plants to demigods. Timi gave birth to the different aquatics, while Saramā to ferocious animals like tigers and lions. Ilā to different creepers and trees, Aditi gave birth to the demigods, while Diti to the demons. Mātṛkā gave birth to the human species and so on. This description from the 6th canto narrates events from the reign of Cākṣuṣa Manu (the 6th of the sequence) when Daksa took his second birth, but the universe is populated in a similar way by different Prajapatis at every Manvantara, starting from the reign of Svayabhuva Manu. Brahma himself creates the different species at the beginning of his day as a blueprint, or as a seed, and the Prajapatis take charge of bringing forth generations of living entities and increasing their population. During the day of Brahma different species are repeatedly extinct and later repopulated by the Prajapatis.
A seed already contains a plant, but to grow and develop, this plant has to be planted in the right conditions. With the exception of his mental sons, Brahma doesn’t directly create living entities. What he does is to create the seeds, so to say, of the different species of life and give it to the Prajapatis, who bring forth generations of living beings as necessary. Even if certain species become extinct at a certain point, the seed still exists, and thus the Prajapatis can repopulate it at any point. Of course, when we speak about “seed” this is just an imperfect analogy to try to explain a complicated concept. In reality, we are not speaking about a physical object, but some kind of subtle manifestation.
Another example that can be given is a project, or blueprint. Creating something is not necessarily the same as producing it. A person may project a car and even make a few prototypes of it, and then give the project to a company that may produce it in series, or many different companies may produce the car at the same time or at different points in time. As soon as the project is made, the car already exists, and it continues existing as long as the project is circulating around, and different companies may produce it at different times. Similarly, Brahma creates the different forms of life, and the Prajapatis “produce” them as necessary.
For example, we learn that there were human beings living on Earth since the beginning of the reign of Svayabhuva Manu, leading to the reign of Uttanapada, the progress during the reign of Prithu Maharaja, and so on. However, as narrated in the 4th canto, when the Pacetas came out of the ocean at the end of their austerities at the beginning of the Caksusa Manvantara, the planet was covered by trees. Apparently, there were no humans living there at this time. By the arrangement of the demigod Soma, they got married to Marisa, the daughter of the apsara Pramloca, and begot Daksa (in his second birth). Daksa in turn had 60 daughters who married great sages and repopulated the universe, including human beings, as described in the 6th canto.
As we can see, the creation of Brahma is done just once at the beginning of his day, but the work of the Prajapatis is continuous, following the different cycles of devastation our universe passes through. There is one devastation at the end of the reign of each Manu, which affects not only our planet, but also the populations of demigods and demons, there is a small devastation at the end of each Kali-yuga, in which great environmental degradation occurs, and so on. In this way, the Pajapatis as well as the Manus and other higher beings are constantly engaged in creating new populations and maintaining the proper conditions for the existence of life all over the universe.
These cycles of destruction don’t affect higher planetary systems, starting from Maharloka. As we studied previously, our universe is divided into 14 levels of planetary systems, going from Patalaloka to Brahmaloka. The 7 lower planetary systems are inhabited by demons, the 8th, Bhu-Mandala is inhabited by human beings, the 9th by subtle beings (the Yakshas and Rakshasas) and the 10th is Swargaloka, inhabited by demigods. All these 10 planetary systems are affected by the devastations at the end of each Manvantara and are completely destroyed at the end of each day of Brahma. The Prajapatis live in Maharloka, the 11th planetary system, which is not affected by these events. In this way, they survive during the whole day of Brahma and are able to repopulate the lower planetary systems when needed. At the end of the current day of Brahma, the ones who qualify will be promoted to the highest planetary systems (Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka) where they will live until the final devastation of the universe. After such a long life, the ones who qualify will be able to finally attain liberation and reach the spiritual planets.
One could question how the Prajapatis, who are evolved human beings living in the higher planetary systems can give birth to lower animals and plants, which have completely different bodily structures. Saramā, for example, gave birth to tigers and lions, although neither she nor her husband are felines. How does this work? The point the Vedas make is that more evolved beings have the capacity to generate less evolved beings (like a Prajapati generating a tiger), but the opposite doesn’t happen. Life in the universe starts thus from the most evolved being, Brahma, who in turn generates slightly less evolved beings (the Prajapatis), who in turn generate all the other less evolved species of life. This is something that can be observed even on our planet. Human beings can manipulate less evolved organisms using artificial insemination and genetic manipulation. A human being can clone a sheep or create a GMO soy seed, for example, but he will never be capable of producing a demigod.
We can see that this is essentially the opposite of what is believed in the modern evolution theory, which says that lower forms of life gradually produce more evolved forms, starting with inanimate matter somehow producing very simple unicellular organisms, which in turn gradually evolve into more complex species, culminating with human beings. One may have a different opinion, but I personally believe that the description of the Vedas makes more sense.
Another possible objection is to my use of the word “evolved”. When I say that human beings are more “evolved” than animals like tigers and lions, it appears that this supports the theory of evolution from Darwin, but that’s not actually the case. Prabhupada makes the point that the Vedas also offer a theory of evolution, it’s just that it’s different from what Darwin wrote about. The Vedic idea is that the soul gradually evolves from unicellular organisms to plants, insects, birds, lower animals, and so on, eventually reaching the human species. In this way, when we speak about humans being more “evolved” than lower animals, we are referring to this process of spiritual evolution, where the soul transmigrates through different types of bodies, going from less evolved living beings, all the way up to Brahma, the most evolved.