If Brahma is the creator of the universe, from where did the lotus on which he was born come?

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truths of devotion service. Thank you. If Brahma is the creator, then how are the lotus petal and things already present before him? Answer, the Bhagavatam and the dharmic texts describe creation as a multi-level process and Brahma is considered to be a secondary creator Rochitam rochayam yaham, in the Bhagavatam it said that his role is like a gardener.
If we went to a mansion and saw a beautiful garden, then the gardener, say the gardener is there and the gardener may say, I created this beautiful garden. If we can use the, see the word creativity when we use it in normal senses, so if we say somebody is a creative artist, a creative painter, it’s not that they create out of nothing. There’s already some ingredients are there and based on that they create it.
So, the sense of creation not from scratch but from some ingredients, just like a gardener has existing seeds, has an existing place for gardening and then transforms that into a beautiful garden. So, it is in that sense that we are creators and it is in that sense also, although at a much broader and deeper level that Brahmaji is the creator. Moreover, fundamentally the act of creation is not an absolute beginning for everything in the dharmic context because the ingredients of creation are also considered to be eternal.
In fact, God is not considered to be one isolated person. God is complete with his energies, that is matter and spirit. They are both co-eternal with God.
So, beyond Brahma is Vishnu who is the, you could say, the original creator, Adi Karta and Adi Sushti Karta. So, as the original creator, he exists eternally and he includes his energies, that is matter and spirit. So, matter exists in an unmanifested form and he manifests and he by his action, he by his desire that creation unfold, that through the glance he permeates energy into the matter that is unmanifest and it starts manifesting.
And at a particular point in that manifestation, Brahma takes the role of specifically manifesting the various forms and the various celestial objects that comprise the manifest world, manifest universe as we see. So, we could have this answer at two levels. If you want to ask how Brahma specifically has a lotus existing before, then the answer is that because Brahma is not the original creator, he is a secondary creator who shapes pre-existing things into attractive appropriate shapes, just the way a gardener or artist does.
And if you want to ask how did God create anything in general beyond the specifics of the lotus, then the answer is that God does not create something out of nothing, because God is not separate from, God is not simply one isolated being separate from rest of reality. God includes his energies. So, matter and spirit exist co-eternally with God, all the matter exists sometimes in unmanifest stage, and God is the creator.
Of course, God is not Brahma, God is the creator, even of the original creator, Brahma, and that is Vishnu, one who is present in every Anu of the Vishwa, that is Vishnu, the all-pervading being. So, he activates the process of creation by his omnipotent glance. Thank you.