HV 34.1
श्रुतस् ते दैत्यसैन्यस्य विस्तरस् तात विग्रहे । सुराणां सर्वसैन्यस्य विस्तरं वैष्णवं शृणु ॥
śrutas te daitya-sainyasya vistaras tāta vigrahe | surāṇāṃ sarva-sainyasya vistaraṃ vaiṣṇavaṃ śṛṇu
You have heard the vast array of the daitya-host for the conflict, dear one; now hear the extent of the Vaiṣṇava host — the host of all the suras.
The Living Words
*Śrutaḥ te daitya-sainyasya vistaraḥ*, 'you have heard the vast array of the daitya-host'. *Surāṇāṃ sarva-sainyasya vistaram*, 'the extent of the host of all the suras'. *Vaiṣṇavaṃ śṛṇu*, 'hear the Vaiṣṇava [host]'.
The Heart of It
The narrator's bridge is deliberate: the same word *vistara* — 'extent' — is applied to both sides. The chapter refuses the lazy distinction that would describe demons in detail and gods in abstraction. Both are *vistaras*, both have generals, chariots, weapons. The Warkari reading is that neither the demonic nor the divine can be met by imagination alone; both must be *śruta*, heard in detail. Jñāneśvar's Haripāṭh Abhaṅga 8 *savistarēṃ kathūnī* — 'having narrated in full extent' — honors the same *vistara* as the Harivaṃśa: only a detailed telling shows the truth. Edited summaries flatter the ego; full telling flattens it.